Posts by MistyBlue2010

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  • ~~~☆Tetsuwan Atomu!☆ベンニ's Genetics Training~~~

    Awesome!


    So you already know how the 3 Eumelanin Base Colors are Black, Chocolate, and Cinnamon. And that the Base Color genes are B, b, and bl.


    Next we are going to learn about a set of genes that alter the Base Color called Dilute but first we need to know how the Eumelanin pigments work.


    Each pigment (black, chocolate, and cinnamon) is a slightly different shape, and this shape difference is what gives you the different color. Those pigments are compacted into each strand of hair.


    The dilute gene alters this by spreading apart those pigments which causes the cat to appear lighter (and therefore diluted).


    Ignore the middle (Caramelized versions) for now because we will learn about those later but these graphics are a pretty decent visualization of what I am describing.

    Display Spoiler



    So as you can see, the diluted versions are as follows:


    Dense --> Dilute
    Black --> Blue
    Chocolate --> Lilac
    Cinnamon --> Fawn


    The dilute alleles are represented by "D" and "d". Dense (D) is dominant over Dilute (d).


    Now when we write out the genotype of cats we will also be including the dense/dilute alleles as well. So each cat will now be written with 2 pairs of alleles.


    Example:


    Black = BB DD



    I want you to guess the genotypes for the following phenotypes:


    Chocolate =


    Fawn =


    Blue =


    Black =



    Now guess what the phenotype is based on these genotypes:


    Bb dd =


    bb dd =


    blbl Dd =


    bbl dd =

  • ~~~☆Tetsuwan Atomu!☆ベンニ's Genetics Training~~~


    Everything is correct except that last one. Easy mistake because it was right after the Cinnamon genotype. You clearly have an understanding of the genotypes, so I am not too worried that you wrote Fawn instead of Lilac again since you probably just assumed that I wrote a typo. I was just testing ya. :P




    So now we have two punnet squares to do. Now in the genetics test you will need to assume that unless there is a dilute parent, that both parents are homozygous for dense. And that is how we are going to learn it. Just know that when you are doing pairings for people, you will always assume that a dense colored cat is heterozygous for the gene. That way they can get more variety of kittens.


    BUT in this thread, a dense cat will ALWAYS be homozygous for dense unless there is a dilute parent, in which case the dense parent will be Heterozygous for the gene.



    Example:


    Black x Chocolate


    Black, Chocolate



    B b D D


    b Bb bb D DD DD


    b Bb bb D DD DD



    Try these pairings:


    Black male, lilac female:


    Fawn male, blue female:


    Cinnamon male, chocolate female:


    Blue male, Black female:

  • ~~~Sunshínє's Genetics Training~~~


    You got the third question incorrect. Re-read the question again to see if you can spot your mistake. :) If not I will show you.



    Review the key words list if you are having difficulties with the meanings. And if you write it out in the punnet square you will be okay. :)


    Example:


    ~~For Homozygous pairings (only applies to the dominant color)~~


    Black male, cinnamon female:


    Step 1: Figure out which one is the dominant color. (In this case, Black is the dominant color)


    Step 2: Figure out if the question asks for the dominant color to be homozygous OR heterozygous. (In this case the dominant color will be homozygous - two copies of the same allele).


    Step 3: Write out the alleles:


    Black (Homozygous) = BB
    Cinnamon = blbl


    Step 4: Create the punnet square:


    Black


    B B
    bl Bbl Bbl
    Cinnamon
    bl Bbl Bbl


    Step 5: Analyze the punnet square. (This shows that all of the kittens will be black since Black (B) is the dominant phenotype and there are no (blbl) pairings).


    Step 6: Write out the paring as "Male x Female"


    Black x Cinnamon


    Black




    Now if we were doing a heterozgous pairing it would look like this:


    ~~For Heterozygous pairings (only applies to the dominant color)~~


    Black male, cinnamon female:


    Step 1: Figure out which one is the dominant color. (In this case, Black is the dominant color)


    Step 2: Figure out if the question asks for the dominant color to be homozygous OR heterozygous. (In this case the dominant color will be heteryzygous - one copy of the dominant allele and one copy of the recessive allele).


    Step 3: Write out the alleles:


    Black (Homozygous) = Bbl
    Cinnamon = blbl


    Step 4: Create the punnet square:


    Black


    B bl
    bl Bbl blbl
    Cinnamon
    bl Bbl blbl


    Step 5: Analyze the punnet square. (This shows that there can be black kittens and cinnamon kittens since both genotypes show up in the punnet square).


    Step 6: Write out the paring as "Male x Female"


    Black x Cinnamon


    Black, Cinnamon



    Does this help?

  • Chrono's Genetics Training

    Nᴏriko. wrote:


    [fancypost borderwidth=0px;width:350px;text-align:justify;font-size:13px;line-height:110%;][sup]In order to have dilution modifiers, at least one parent needs to have a dilution modifier (which they do not) for that to be an outcome in the kits.


    And yes. c:



    Well Technically a non-dilute color (black, chocolate, or cinnamon) can have the dilute modifier and not show it because the dilute modifier only affects the dilute colors.


    The first answer would not have any dilute modified colors since the dilute modifier gene is dominant and both parents are dilutes, but the other two could technically have the modifier kittens as long as you state that you are assuming that the non-dilute color has one copy of the dilute modifier gene. Only 1 copy though because if the parent was homozygous dominant for dilute modifier, there would be no regular dilute kittens.

  • ~~~☆Tetsuwan Atomu!☆ベンニ's Genetics Training~~~


    PERFECT! :D :D



    Dilute colors are pretty easy. :) I will type up the tabby lesson after work today. :)

  • ~~~☆Tetsuwan Atomu!☆ベンニ's Genetics Training~~~

    Okay, so next we will be talking about Tabbies. The tabby gene is referred to as the "Agouti" gene.


    Agouti actually refers to the banding pattern of the hair. There are two different types of hair on tabbies. The Solid hairs are what produce the actual tabby markings, and the Agouti banding hairs are the "background" hairs. The Solid hairs show what color the cat actually is. So a cat with black tabby stripes is a Black Tabby (However, black tabbies are called Brown Tabbies - not to be confused with Chocolate Tabbies, which are have the "b" gene and are Chocolate colored Tabbies).


    agouti vs solid


    The neat thing about these agouti banding is that the stripes alternate between Pheomelanin and Eumelanin pigments. (As seen in the picture photo below).


    banding


    Here is a closeup of the Agouti hairs on a Brown Tabby.


    [img width=510 height=337]http://img.photobucket.com/alb…my%20kitties/Malibuah.jpg[/img]





    The normal coloration of cats is to be Tabby. The solid gene is actually a mutation that blocks the production of these Agouti bands.


    What this means is that the tabby banding is actually still there. Even though you cannot see it in Adult solid cats, you can actually get a glimpse of what tabby markings kittens would have if they didn't have the mutated copy of the Agouti gene (which made them solid).


    [img width=510 height=429]http://www.pets4homes.co.uk/im…kittens-5241b697a9df1.JPG[/img]


    This tends to go away when they get older (not sure of the mechanics of why you can see the markings sometimes). BUT there are breeds that take advantage of this and have bred their cats to maintain the ghost markings. You can see this in Egyptain Maus.



    Anyway, so the genotype of Agouti is "AA or Aa" and the genotype for solid is "aa" and Agouti is Dominant over Solid.



    Agouti = AA or Aa
    Solid = aa



    There are 4 different tabby patterns (3 of them are on separate loci - this means that they are seperate genotypes and are completely independent of each other).


    [img width=510 height=153]http://home.earthlink.net/~per…rpictures/tabbytypes1.jpg[/img]



    Classic and Mackerel are on the same locus. Mackerel Tabby is dominant over Classic Tabby. Mackerel Tabbies have thin stripes, and Classic Tabbies have thick stripes that swirl into a bulls-eye pattern.


    Mackerel Tabby = McMc or Mcmc
    Classic Tabby = mcmc


    Mackerel Tabby


    Classic Tabby


    Spotted Tabby is on a serarate locus and affects the Mackerel/Classic tabby pattern by chopping up the pattern into spots. Mackerel Spotted Tabbies tend to have smaller spots than Classic Spotted Tabbies. This is not important for predicting litters here on Feral Front because people tend to not care or understand this so we just don't complicate it too much. However, I think it is really neat so I am teaching it to you anyway. Just know that when doing litters, you won't distinguish between Mackerel or Classic Spotted Tabbies. You will just refer them all as Spotted Tabbies.


    Since Spotted Tabby modifies the Mackerel/Classic Tabby markings, it is dominant over them. It is a gene that is either "ON" or "OFF".


    Spotted Tabby = SpSp or Spsp
    Normal Tabby = spsp


    Mackerel Spotted Tabby


    Classic Spotted Tabby


    Ticked Tabby is on a separate locus as well and also affects all tabby markings by blocking the production of tabby stripes. This gene only allows the agouti banding to be produced (except on the head - there is still the signature "M" marking that the tabby stripes produce).


    Since ticked tabby stops all production of the tabby stripes, this means it is dominant over all other tabby markings. This pattern is also an "ON" or "OFF" gene.


    Ticked Tabby = TaTa or Tata
    Normal Tabby = tata


    Ticked Tabby


    HOWEVER, when the cat is heterocygous for Ticked Tabby (Tata) there can sometimes be banding produced on the legs. This is not important for predicting litters but is still cool. With litters you will not distinguish between banding on the legs or not. They will all just be referred to as Ticked Tabbies.


    Ticked Tabby w/Banding



    SO lets Recap:


    Agouti = AA or Aa
    Solid = aa



    Mackerel Tabby = McMc or Mcmc
    Classic Tabby = mcmc



    Spotted Tabby = SpSp or Spsp
    Not Spotted = spsp



    Ticked Tabby = TaTa or Tata
    Not Ticked = tata



    Ticked > Spotted > Mackerel > Classic



    1) Guess the phenotypes of the cats below: (Remember, Black "Pattern" Tabby = Brown "Pattern" Tabby, All other tabbies will just be "Color" "Pattern" Tabby)


    BB dd AA McMc spsp tata


    bb Dd aa mcmc Spsp Tata


    blbl dd Aa Mcmc spsp TaTa


    BB Dd Aa mcmc spsp tata


    bbl dd Aa mcmc Spsp tata



    2) Predict the kittens: (These will just be generic tabby patterns - you don't have to do the pattern punnet squares. Just write "color" Tabby. Ignore the pattern for these ones)
    ~~Always assume the agouti gene is "Aa". This will be assumed on the test.
    ~~Always assume that solid colored cats would normally be Mackerel Tabbies (McMc spsp tata) if they had the agouti gene


    Brown Tabby male, Blue female:


    Chocolate male, Cinnamon Tabby female:


    Fawn male, Blue Female:


    Lilac Tabby male, Fawn Tabby female:


    3) Predict the kittens: (Until you understand the tabby markings, do the punnet squares for all tabby markings. You may skip the punnet squares for base color and dilute if you feel you understand them)
    ~~Always assume the agouti gene is "Aa". This will be assumed on the test.
    ~~Always assume that solid colored cats would normally be Mackerel Tabbies (McMc spsp tata) if they had the agouti gene.
    ~~Always assume that spotted tabbies are Mackerel Spotted Tabbies (McMc Spsp tata)


    Chocolate Classic Tabby male, Chocolate Mackerel Tabby female


    Brown Ticked Tabby male, Black female


    Blue Spotted Tabby male, Chocolate Mackerel Tabby


    Cinnamon male, Fawn Classic Tabby

  • ~~~Sunshínє's Genetics Training~~~

    4) Figure out the offspring of these cat pairings: (for these problems, assume that the parents are homozygous for their colors)


    Black male, Black female:


    Chocolate male, Black female:


    5) Figure out the offspring for these cat pairings: (for these problems, assume that the dominant colored parent is heterozygous for the color of the recessive colored parent)


    Cinnamon male, Chocolate female:


    Black male, Cinnamon female:

  • ~~~☆Tetsuwan Atomu!☆ベンニ's Genetics Training~~~

    Two things really quick. Brown Tabby is the breeder name for Black Tabby. Brown Tabby isn't Chocolate Tabby.



    Second I should have clarified how to write out Tabby litters.


    Example:


    Brown Tabby x Blue


    Black, Blue, Brown Tabby, Blue Tabby



    Chocolate Mackeral Tabby x Cinnamon Classic Tabby


    Chocolate, Lilac, Cinnamon, Fawn, Chocolate Tabby, Lilac Tabby, Cinnamon Tabby, Fawn Tabby


    Tabbies will be Mackeral or Classic.



    Sorry. :)

  • maine coon x munchkin genetics?

    Just in regards to the munchkin part. In this pairing between a non-munchkin and a munchkin. There will be no possibility of death. It is only between two munchkins that you run the risk of getting both dominant munchkin genes, which causes death. :)

  • ~~~☆Tetsuwan Atomu!☆ベンニ's Genetics Training~~~

    ☆Tetsuwan Atomu!☆ベンニ wrote:

    I haven't given up!, I love learning genetics, I just have a lot on my hands -- my mother was recently in a accident and is now in the hospital for bedrest, so im extremely very very busy helping take care of her and the house and pets, I really hope you understand!! I'll begin my studies again as soon as she is doing okay enough to not need my help as much as she really needs it now!! thank you for being patient with me!


    Oh gosh, of course! Yeah, take your time.

  • DO YOU WANT TO BE TAUGHT GENETICS BY A GENETICIST?


    I will teach you :) I will make a thread and invite you to it. :)

  • ~~Mercy's Genetics Training~~

    I am glad that you are enthusiastic about learning genetics! :) At times you may have trouble understanding what I am talking about and that is normal. But PLEASE tell me when you are having trouble because it will only get more confusing if you keep going without asking questions. :D


    With that in mind though, this is going to be fun. :)


    Okay, so here is my guide about genetics. If you are ever stuck you can refer to this to see if that helps.


    https://docs.google.com/file/d…WxReEIyLU56V0E/edit?pli=1




    So first things first. Skin color is controlled by pigments called Melanin. Everything has it. Melanin protects your skin from the sun.
    "Melanin: The pigment that gives human skin, hair, and eyes their color. Dark-skinned people have more melanin in their skin than light-skinned people have. Melanin is produced by cells called melanocytes."


    There are two different types of melanin cells in cats. Eumelanin and Pheomelanin. Eumelanin is the normal type and Pheomelanin is the mutated type.


    Eumelanin is what makes a cat look black, chocolate, or cinnamon. When the cat has the mutated version called Pheomelanin, the cat loses the ability to produce melanin and the cat ends up looking red/orange.



    So we are first going to focus on Eumelanin colors because those are the easiest to start with.



    Okay, we will go over some basics. I will put key words in bold and I will provide a short key words list at the bottom of each lesson.



    A Gene is a trait that is passed from parent to offspring. Number of toes and hair color are examples of different types of different genes.


    In this case we will be talking about cats and for each gene, a cat will get two alleles (one from the mother and one from the father).


    In this case, we have 3 different alleles that code for normal coat color. This gene is often referred to as the cat's Base Color. So if you see anyone talking about the Base Color of a cat, they are referring to the Eumelanin colors.


    In cats, the Black Phenotype is the most dominant and will show up as the cat's color as long as they have at least one "B" allele. The Chocolate Phenotype is the second most dominant and will only show up if the cat doesn't have a "B" allele but DOES have at least one "b" allele. The Cinnamon Phenotype is recessive to both Black and Chocolate and will ONLY show up if the cat receives a "bl" from both parents.


    Black = BB, Bb, or Bbl
    Chocolate = bb or bbl
    Cinnamon = blbl


    So from looking at which alleles code for black, chocolate, and cinnamon, you should be able to see which allele is the most dominant and which allele is the most recessive.


    Now when a cat has two of the same allele (ex: BB) the cat is said to be homozygous for that trait. And when a cat has two different alleles (ex: Bb) the cat is said to be heterozygous for that trait.



    Each set of traits has two different ways of describing it. The phenotype and the genotype.


    Phenotype refers to the the physical description of that allele.
    Genotype refers to the genetic description of that allele.


    For Base Color, the phenotype refers to the colors (black, chocolate, and cinnammon), and the genotype refers to the allele combination (ex: BB, bb, blbl).



    To figure out what color the kittens will be when you cross two Eumelanin colored cats, you set up a punnet square using the genotypes of the parents. :)
    Click Here for a Punnet Square reference PDF


    For now we are going to assume that these cats are homozygous for Base Color. Since the base color isn't gender specific, it doesn't matter which is the male and which is the female, but I will let you know which is which.



    So if we were going to do a cross of a male Black cat and a female Black cat, the punnet square would look like this:



    B B


    B BB BB

    B BB BB


    What does this mean? This means that when crossing two black cats that are both Homozygous for that trait, the phenotype of all of their offspring will be Black.


    So if I were to write this out it would look like this:


    Black x Black


    Black



    So when you do pairings, you will write out your answers like this: (replacing the male, female, and offspring with colors of course) When you are doing pairings for other people you don't have to write out the punnet square, but for practice I want you to write it out.


    Male x Female


    Offspring


    Punnet Square


    KEY WORDS



    Review Questions:



    1) What does it mean for a trait to be dominant? recessive?


    2) For base color, write out the colors (not alleles) in order of most dominant to recessive.


    3) Based on the Genotypes, can you name the Phenotypes of the following cats?


    BB =


    blbl =


    bbl =


    4) Figure out the offspring of these cat pairings: (for these problems, assume that the parents are homozygous for their colors)


    Black male, Black female:


    Chocolate male, Black female:


    5) Figure out the offspring for these cat pairings: (for these problems, assume that the dominant colored parent is heterozygous for the color of the recessive colored parent)


    Cinnamon male, Chocolate female:


    Black male, Cinnamon female:




    **Make sure you follow the template that I used in the example above.** (You can copy and paste this template (below) if that helps - just replace the female with the female's color, and the male with the male's color)



    Also, if you are like me and you learn well from visual examples you can watch this video. :)

    Display Spoiler

  • ~~~Sunshínє's Genetics Training~~~



    Perfect! :D All are correct!! :D I am so happy you got the format of the litters down 100% perfectly! :D



    Awesome!


    So you already know how the 3 Eumelanin Base Colors are Black, Chocolate, and Cinnamon. And that the Base Color genes are B, b, and bl.


    Next we are going to learn about a set of genes that alter the Base Color called Dilute but first we need to know how the Eumelanin pigments work.


    Each pigment (black, chocolate, and cinnamon) is a slightly different shape, and this shape difference is what gives you the different color. Those pigments are compacted into each strand of hair.


    The dilute gene alters this by spreading apart those pigments which causes the cat to appear lighter (and therefore diluted).


    Ignore the middle (Caramelized versions) for now because we will learn about those later but these graphics are a pretty decent visualization of what I am describing.

    Display Spoiler



    So as you can see, the diluted versions are as follows:


    Dense --> Dilute
    Black --> Blue
    Chocolate --> Lilac
    Cinnamon --> Fawn


    The dilute alleles are represented by "D" and "d". Dense (D) is dominant over Dilute (d).


    Now when we write out the genotype of cats we will also be including the dense/dilute alleles as well. So each cat will now be written with 2 pairs of alleles.


    Example:


    Black = BB DD



    I want you to guess the genotypes for the following phenotypes:


    Chocolate =


    Fawn =


    Blue =


    Black =



    Now guess what the phenotype is based on these genotypes:


    Bb dd =


    bb dd =


    blbl Dd =


    bbl dd =

  • ~~Mercy's Genetics Training~~



    Perfect! :D All are correct!! :D I am so happy you got the format of the litters down 100% perfectly! :D



    Awesome!


    So you already know how the 3 Eumelanin Base Colors are Black, Chocolate, and Cinnamon. And that the Base Color genes are B, b, and bl.


    Next we are going to learn about a set of genes that alter the Base Color called Dilute but first we need to know how the Eumelanin pigments work.


    Each pigment (black, chocolate, and cinnamon) is a slightly different shape, and this shape difference is what gives you the different color. Those pigments are compacted into each strand of hair.


    The dilute gene alters this by spreading apart those pigments which causes the cat to appear lighter (and therefore diluted).


    Ignore the middle (Caramelized versions) for now because we will learn about those later but these graphics are a pretty decent visualization of what I am describing.

    Display Spoiler



    So as you can see, the diluted versions are as follows:


    Dense --> Dilute
    Black --> Blue
    Chocolate --> Lilac
    Cinnamon --> Fawn


    The dilute alleles are represented by "D" and "d". Dense (D) is dominant over Dilute (d).


    Now when we write out the genotype of cats we will also be including the dense/dilute alleles as well. So each cat will now be written with 2 pairs of alleles.


    Example:


    Black = BB DD



    I want you to guess the genotypes for the following phenotypes:


    Chocolate =


    Fawn =


    Blue =


    Black =



    Now guess what the phenotype is based on these genotypes:


    Bb dd =


    bb dd =


    blbl Dd =


    bbl dd =