NJWRC Editorial • Genetics Made Easy
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GENETICS MADE EASY BY JULIE AVERSA
This article is not meant to be a complete guide to rabbit genetics. It will address those common to Jersey Woolies. As a breeder, it is very helpful to have a working knowledge of rabbit genetics. I get questions all the time; “can I breed this to this” or “what will I get if I bred this to that.”. Type should be considered first when breeding, but producing unshowable colors is undesirable. I like to have as clean of lines as possible. For this article I am going to try and keep it simple. So, I will stick to the basics. The first thing is rabbits get 2 copies of each gene (Editor’s note: The word GENE refers to the genetic component that results in a trait. ALLELE refers to a version of a gene. Sometimes the terms are used interchangeably). The color genes we will discuss in this article are: A, B, C, D, and E. In each of these groups the rabbit gets 2 genes. Rabbits receive one allele from each parent. Each allele in a set of genes is either dominant or recessive. Dominant genes. All genes have a level of dominance. Dominant genes or alleles express (show) in the coat color. It is either visibly there or it is not present. It cannot be
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carried. Recessive genes. You must have 2 copies of that gene for it to express in the coat. So, each parent must pass on that recessive gene. If only 1 copy is present, it does NOT visibly express in the coat. Order of dominance- in all color gene sets, there is an order of dominance of the alleles within that set. Note: We show by phenotype (how a rabbit looks), not by genotype, which is the rabbits genetic code. Therefore knowing the genotype is not required for showing your rabbit, but greatly helps with breeding.
A Allele A Allele-order of dominance A (agouti), at (tan), a (self) A-agouti is dominant and cannot hide. The other (at, a) can hide behind A. So, an agouti can carry tan or self. Ex. Chestnut, opal, chinchilla, squirrel. at -tan is similar to agouti in markings, but without the
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