Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Daniel Craig, and all blue-eyed people are related, according to the scientists of the University of Copenhagen: The mutation that made blue eyes possible in humans comes from a single common ancestor.
All Blue-eyed People Are Related
The 10-year research confirmed that a particular mutation caused by a gene, which regulates the production of melanin in the iris, is shared by all blue-eyed people in the word.
Its specific position on the DNA spiral points out to a single person who is the common predecessor of each and every blue-eyed human.
As such, Angelina Jolie is not only related to Daniel Craig, but also to the husband Brad Pitt.
The on-screen love birds Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are apparently distant relatives. The Oscar-winner also has a genetic connection to her rumoured romantic interest Liam Hemsworth of the Hunger Games fame.
The Research
Professor Hans Eiberg from the department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine insists that initially humans had brown eyes, according to the Science Daily report.
However, sometime around 10 to 6 thousand years ago, a single genetic mutation created a switch, which caused eyes to stop developing melanin in the iris.
The specifics of the mutation were such that it affected a certain gene in the human chromosome (OCA2 gene). This gene is responsible for production of melanin, the pigment that determines how dark is our skin, as well as the coloration of some other parts of our bodies.
People with the mutation that affects the production of melanin in the whole human body become albinos.
However, the remarkable mutation that caused the advent of blue-eyed humans had a different action: It only inhibited the production of melanin in the eyes.
The “knob” is located in the gene next to the OCA2, and it doesn’t turn it off entirely but diminishes the eye’s ability to produce melanin. The effect of this suppression results in the particular colouring of the eye, making them appear blue.
The mutation might have occurred about 400 generations ago, judging by the time frame.
The Single Ancestor
The researchers analysed the location of the mutated gene in blue eyed people and concluded that its exact position is the same in all modern humans.
This means that the blue-eye mutation comes from a single shared ancestor. All the blue-eyed people you meet are related to this one person, a man or a woman, who developed this mutation several thousand years ago, survived into maturity and procreated.
To arrive to this finding, researchers compared DNA of people from different regions and races, ranging from Europe to Turkey and Jordan.
The research took over 10 years, following Eiberg’s theory that the gene OCA2 was responsible for the colouring of the eyes in people.
The Evolutionary Psychology Value
It is amazing that just one person with a special eye colour managed to propagate his or her DNA to millions of people in today’s world.
While Eiberg believes that the mutation was neutral in nature, in other words, didn’t influence the survival of the person either positively or negatively, its evolutionary psychological value would be dramatic.
Even today people are enchanted by a particular eye colour, and blue-eyed individuals may have been getting an advantage when seeking a mate and dating throughout history.
Imagine how this could break hearts of potential dating partners in prehistoric times when all people on the Earth had brown eyes. Although this single mutation survived and prospered over the past millennia, our fascination with the blue iris colour remains.
50 Celebrities Who Have Blue Eyes
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Bradley Cooper
- Angelina Jolie
- Brad Pitt
- Daniel Craig
- Tom Cruise
- Liam Hemsworth
- Chris Hemsworth
- Miley Cyrus
- Katy Perry
- Madonna
- Adele
- Taylor Swift
- Zac Efron
- Harry Styles
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Jennifer Aniston
- Jake Gyllenhaal
- Sienna Miller
- Jude Law
- Charlize Theron
- Sean Penn
- Russell Crowe
- Mel Gibson
- Nicole Kidman
- Naomi Watts
- Sharon Stone
- Reese Witherspoon
- Anna Kournikova
- Diane Kruger
- Leonardo Dicaprio
- Miranda Kerr
- Kylie Minogue
- Megan Fox
- Ben Stiller
- John Travolta
- Nicolas Cage
- Alec Baldwin
- Rachael Taylor
- Léa Seydoux
- Alexandra Daddario
- Dakota Johnson
- Amber Heard
- Henry Cavill
- Margot Robbie
- Goldie Hawn
- Tom Hanks
- Cara Delevingne
- Michael Fassbender
- Matthew McConaughey
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