Your iris (the colored part of the eye) can tell a lot about
you. Like your fingerprint, the patterns on your iris are
complex and unique. Because of this, iris recognition is used in
some countries for national identification systems and to
automate border crossings. Although we know that no two irises
are the same, very little is understood about the genetics
underlying these differences. Investigators are studying this
topic to learn more about iris-related diseases and to provide
clues about the brain, since iris and brain development appear
to be connected. This is true on a genetic level, for instance,
a mutation linked to iris loss is also associated with defects
in a portion of the brain called the frontal lobe. In addition,
some iris characteristics correlate with neurological diseases
like Down syndrome. A recently published genome-wide association
study (GWAS) sought to elucidate the genetic factors involved in
normal iris variation between people. Scientists from Australia
scanned the genomes of n