two different color eyes

[sunnygirl]

So right now im studying about patterns of heredity and human genetics along with recessive traits and dominant traits.
I have one blue eye and one green eye, no one else in my moms family history has had it, and my dads, well i never meet him, could someone explain to me if its a mutation, heredity, or something, anything!

Am I just a freak in nature?

So does anyone else here have two different color eyes?

[CurlyQe]

We learned this in my biology class, and in no way am I qualified to to say anything firther than that I think it is called Heterochromia iridium, or so says my teacher. But I had looked this up earlier finding it interesting and found an internet site that I can actually understand.

http://ask.yahoo.com/20020724.html

or

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/de ... .Ge.r.html

[sunnygirl]

thanks a bunch that helped a bunch. No one i've talked to could ever explain it to me. The info was great!

[southernsweetheart]

I have two different color eyes too. My right eye is blue and my left eye is green. My mom has bright blue eyes and my dad has green eyes. As far as I know, no one in my family history has had two different color eyes. From what I hear its a "genetic mutation." As a kid I used to get made fun of a lot for it, did you? I'm not ashamed of them or anything but sometimes I wish I just had the same color eyes. Anyway right now I love them. Their great conversation starters and my boyfriend loves them =]. Do you know how many other people have two different color eyes?

[Locus]

southernsweetheart - it is seems to me that color of your eyes is not result of mutation - becouse you parents have exactly thos colors. It is seems to me activation of different allels (from differerent chromosoms) at the your different eyes.

[Amrik]

Yea i would go with Locus...Not a mutation

[MrMistery]

something like mitotic segregation?

[Darby]

The most common reason for different color eyes is mosaicism (the "old" one, not the new one associated with chimeras), which might be the mitotic segregation mentioned above. What I'm about to describe is not the only explanation, but the most likely.

Basically, during development, dividing cells don't properly sort out their chromosomes - one daughter cell gets an extra, the other has one missing. All of their daughter cells (which usually form just a bit of the final baby) are genetically different in the same way. So one eye expresses three color alleles and the other only one. If you originally had a dominant (most darker colors) and recessive (the blue base color), one eye might have the chromosome carrying the blue, and the other the dominant. This also can produce patches in the eyes, on the skin, and other variants (I have a small patch of red hair on top of my brown-haired head).

It's a mutation, but localized on a person and not something that can be passed to offspring.

[julie]

I have two different color eyes also..my left is brown and my right is blue. There are a few famous people that have two different color eyes too..David Bowie and Jane Seymore...I was made fun of a little bit in school, but most people think it is really cool....I have, for the most part hated it....now that I am older, I enjoy it...it's not "that' common..but, it is also not that "uncommon" that you are a freak of nature. Your genes were making your eyes one color...then they changed their mind... like someone who may have an extra toe...or more teeth than normal..or one foot bigger than the other..it just happens. Enjoy it..it makes you different and it makes you you. Your the girl that has "two different color eyes"...my high school had over 4,000 kids in it...I was the only one with two different color eyes....everyone remembers me. My Dad has green eyes, my Mom had blue. Nobody in my family has brown eyes. Two of my children have blue eyes and one has brown....all the same color. I have thought about getting contacts to make them the same color, just to see how it would be....maybe someday I will....but, I think...I wouldn't like it now. Have you ever gotten the line..."did you know your eyes are two different colors?" that's truly my favorite....... or,"are those contacts?"

[Darby]

Bowie actually has a blown pupil in one eye from a childhood injury.

[staar13]

I have two different coloured eyes as well (one blue one green). Most people don't notice right away but I love having it.. it definetely makes you unique. Anyways i was just wondering if anyone knew how common it was.. like are there any statistics on it?
and my favorite line is "do you see different colours out of each eye" lol

[lallababie]

my 3 month old daughter's eyes are different colors, one is turning very blue and the other is brownish green.. i am wondering if they will stay this way..