Markers / Gene
HERC2
One position in this gene is readable from a home DNA test.
Eye colour
rs12913832 · chr15:28,365,618 · A/G · evidence: established
A single position in a control region for the pigment gene OCA2 accounts for most of the blue-versus-brown difference in people of European descent. Nearly every blue-eyed person alive carries the same version, inherited from one ancestor.
| If you carry | What it means |
|---|---|
| No copies | Brown eyes very likely |
| One copy | Usually brown, sometimes green or hazel |
| Two copies | Blue or grey eyes very likely |
| Ancestry group | G (the effect version) | |
|---|---|---|
| African | 2.8% | |
| American | 20.2% | |
| East Asian | 0.2% | |
| European | 63.6% | |
| South Asian | 7.1% |
1000 Genomes Project phase 3, via Ensembl, retrieved 2026-09-23. These groupings are coarse and flatten a great deal of internal diversity, particularly within Africa. A variant being common somewhere tells you where a piece of your ancestry probably comes from, and nothing else.
Where this gene fits
If you have taken a home DNA test, these positions are already in your file.
Read my file