Ok, here’s the deal: I do not know whether I am heterozygous for brown eyes or homozygous for brown eyes. In case you are wondering why it matters to me, I am inquiring about this to better understand the chances of my future children having light eyes or brown eyes. Not that it matters critically, but rather just as a “just wondering” thing.
All data of my relatives’ eye color, simple genotype in parentheses, and country of birth (for ethnic purposes) in brackets, are listed below.
[Russia] maternal grandfather: gray (aa)
[Ukraine] maternal grandmother: hazel (Aa)
[Ukraine] maternal uncle #1: blue (aa)
[Ukraine] maternal uncle #2: gray (aa)
[Ukraine] maternal uncle #3: brown (Aa)
[Ukraine] mother: hazel (Aa)
[Russia] paternal grandfather: gray (aa)
[Ukraine] paternal grandmother: black (AA) - she has an Armenian bloodline so no doubt she is homozygous dominant
[Ukraine] father: brown (Aa)
[America] Me: brown (A?)
[America] Sister: brown (A?)
Using the following Mendelian genetics equation does nothing for me in terms of determining my genotype, except state the obvious–that I am not homozygous recessive.
Aa x Aa = AA Aa Aa aa
It does, however, give me the probabilities that I am homozygous dominant (1/3) or heterozygous dominant (2/3). So odds are that my sister and I are heterozygous dominant. But there is still a big 1/3 possibility that I am homozygous dominant, and I would not be able to have light eyed children.
The Big Question: Is there any other way to objectively determine whether I am homozygous or heterozygous dominant. Is it possible to explore my 15th chromosome pair, locate the OCA2 genes and determine whether one or both chromosomes contain the recessive light-eyed mutation. And even if this was possible do you think I could request lab scientists to check?
Forgive me for the length of this post. If you don’t have a definitive answer, that’s all right, as I can’t seem to find one. All open ideas/input is appreciated. Thanks!