eye color and paternity

[Chromosome Terror]

On 25 Jun 1996, Rcjohnsen wrote:

> It is indeed quite possible!  The inheritance of eye color as a simple
> case of brown being dominant and blue, recessive is patently false.  Many
> old genetics text books present it this way and unfortunately this is what
> most people remember.  Inheritance of eye color is complex(many gene pairs
> are involved) and your case is not far off the general rule--that blue
> eyed and/or green eyed parents most often have blue or green eyed
> children.  However, I have known cases where two blue eyed parents have
> had brown eyed children where paternity was not a question.
> Rcjohnsen at aol.com

I agree with you. However, Alec Jeffreys (of DNA fingerprinting in humans 
fame) came to the Cambridge Science Park in 1993 to give a talk. He 
started by looking at the audience and saying something like "I suppose 
most of you will be surprised if I told you that 10% of the audience do 
not have the father that they think they have..." ;-)

No, seriously. I don't think you can question paternity simply looking at 
the eye colour.

Nach.