The Iris Colour Pattern among University of Port Harcourt Students

Abstract

Eye colour is a polygenic character and is determined by the amount and types of pigments in the iris. Human beings and some animals have many phenotypic variations in their eye colour. The study was carried out to find out the iris colour patterns in students of the University of Port Harcourt and their associated phenotypic characteristics. A population of 1000 students living in the University hostels was examined in this study, 500 male and 500 female. The iris colour, skin and hair colours were checked and routine questions asked to rule out the presence of any ocular pathology. The predominant iris colour among them was dark brown iris which occurred in 65% of the students while the light brown iris colour occurred in 33% of students and the green colour iris occurred in 3% of students. There was an association between dark brown iris colour, black hair and brown skin while light brown iris colour was associated with fair skin and brown hair and the green iris colour associated with fair skin and brown hair. The study has shown that there is a positive association between the iris colour of the students of the University of Port Harcourt and the hair and skin colour.