Mr and Mrs Miller both have brown eyes. could any of their children be born with brown eyes?

explain your thinking. what rule or reasoning did you use to decide what the eye color of the children have

1 answer

To determine the potential eye color of Mr. and Mrs. Miller's children, we need to consider the genetics of eye color inheritance. Eye color is influenced by multiple genes, with brown typically being dominant over green and blue eyes.

If both Mr. and Mrs. Miller have brown eyes, it is important to consider their possible genotypes:

  1. Homozygous Brown (BB): If both parents have the homozygous genotype (BB), all of their children will also have brown eyes since they can only pass on the dominant brown allele.

  2. Heterozygous Brown (Bb): If both parents are heterozygous (Bb), they can pass on either a brown (B) or a blue (b) allele. The possible combinations for their children would be:

    • BB (brown eyes)
    • Bb (brown eyes)
    • Bb (brown eyes)
    • bb (blue eyes)
  3. Mixed Genotype: In cases where one parent is homozygous brown and the other is heterozygous brown, the outcomes again would primarily involve brown-eyed children, but one child could potentially have blue eyes depending on the allele combination.

Based on this reasoning, if both Mr. and Mrs. Miller are heterozygous brown (Bb), their children could have brown eyes or, in some cases, blue eyes. However, if at least one parent is homozygous brown (BB), all children will definitely have brown eyes.

In summary, yes, their children could be born with brown eyes, and their specific genotypes will determine the actual eye color of their children.