title: Human eye colour and HERC2, OCA2 and MATP.
abstract: Prediction of human eye colour by forensic genetic methods is of great value in certain crime investigations. Strong associations between blue/brown eye colour and the SNP loci rs1129038 and rs12913832 in the HERC2 gene were recently described. Weaker associations between eye colour and other genetic markers also exist. In 395 randomly selected Danes, we investigated the predictive values of various combinations of SNP alleles in the HERC2, OCA2 and MATP (SLC45A2) genes and compared the results to the eye colours as they were described by the individuals themselves. The highest predictive value of typing either the HERC2 SNPs rs1129038 and/or rs12913832 that are in strong linkage disequilibrium was observed when eye colour was divided into two groups, (1) blue, grey and green (light) and (2) brown and hazel (dark). Sequence variations in rs11636232 and rs7170852 in HERC2, rs1800407 in OCA2 and rs16891982 in MATP showed additional association with eye colours in addition to the effect of HERC2 rs1129038. Diplotype analysis of three sequence variations in HERC2 and one sequence variation in OCA2 showed the best discrimination between light and dark eye colours with a likelihood ratio of 29.3.
authors.affiliation: Section of Forensic Genetics, Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 11 Frederik V's Vej, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mengel-From
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Børsting
authors.forename: Juan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Eiberg
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Morling
mesh_terms: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary; D005127:Eye Color / Q000235:genetics*; D053803:Forensic Genetics; D020662:Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D017931:DNA Primers; D020662:Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; C489600:OCA2 protein, human; C510061:SLC45A2 protein, human; C118566:HERC2 protein, human; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases