rs12913832
Eye colour
What this position does
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.
What each result means
| If you carry | What it means |
|---|---|
| No copies of the effect version AA | Brown eyes very likely Two copies of the version that lets OCA2 run at full output, which produces brown eyes. |
| One copy AG | Usually brown, sometimes green or hazel One of each. Most people with this genotype have brown eyes, but green and hazel are common and the other pigment genes matter more here than anywhere else. |
| Two copies GG | Blue or grey eyes very likely Two copies of the low-output version. Around three quarters to nine tenths of people with this genotype have blue or grey eyes. |
Worth knowing. Derived almost entirely from European study populations. It predicts poorly outside them.
How common each version is
| 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.
How many people carry each result
| Ancestry group | AA | AG | GG |
|---|---|---|---|
| African | 626 / 661 | 33 / 661 | 2 / 661 |
| European | 90 / 503 | 186 / 503 | 227 / 503 |
| East Asian | 502 / 504 | 2 / 504 | 0 / 504 |
| South Asian | 422 / 489 | 65 / 489 | 2 / 489 |
| American | 227 / 347 | 100 / 347 | 20 / 347 |
Counts of people, not modelled frequencies: every one of the 2,504 individuals sequenced by the 1000 Genomes Project phase 3, tallied by the genotype they carry. Deriving these from allele frequencies instead would assume random mating inside each group and undercount the homozygotes.
How to find out which you have
If you have taken a test with 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, Family Tree DNA, TellMeGen or Living DNA, this position is very likely already in the raw data file they gave you. You do not need another test.
One thing to watch if you look it up by hand: testing companies report some positions from one DNA strand and some from the other, and the file does not say which. Read the letters as they appear and you will get the opposite of the truth for some positions. Sequencings resolves that automatically.
Source
Coordinates and allele pair verified against Ensembl GRCh37. Direction of effect verified against VEP protein consequences or 1000 Genomes population frequency. Category: Trait.
Where this fits
Common questions
What is rs12913832?
rs12913832 is a position in the HERC2 gene on chromosome 15. 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.
What does it mean if I have GG at rs12913832?
Blue or grey eyes very likely. Two copies of the low-output version. Around three quarters to nine tenths of people with this genotype have blue or grey eyes.
What does it mean if I have AA at rs12913832?
Brown eyes very likely. Two copies of the version that lets OCA2 run at full output, which produces brown eyes.
How do I find out my rs12913832 genotype?
If you have taken a home DNA test, this position is very likely in the raw data file you were given. Sequencings reads that file in your browser without uploading it, and resolves which DNA strand each position was reported from, which is the step most manual lookups get wrong.
This is reference information, not medical advice, and not a diagnosis. See the medical disclaimer. Category: Trait.