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Need some help with color genetics

Basenji Health Issues & Questions
  • I have always liked researching genetics and basenjis are my breed. so it is only natural that I need to make a chart of genetic color inheritance for them. I am making this chart to also help out a dog sim game that is just now implementing color genetics into the game. As I am one of the top "kennels" on this game I have volunteered to go out and find all the info I can to make the best of these colors. Since the basenji color scheme is fairly limited we are interested in adding some of the rarer colors,and fault colors too.

    If anyone would be willing to help me figure out and write up a genetics chart for basenjis it would be greatly appreciated.

    the colors I would like to see implemented are as follows:

    Red and White
    Black and White
    Brindle and White
    Tri-color
    Trindle
    Blue and White
    Cream and White
    Sable
    Mohogany and White

    please help!

    ~Charlene

  • Cream, Sable, and Mahoghany, I can not help out with since there inheritance in basenjis is really not well understood or agreed on.

    As for the rest you are dealing with 3 loci to give various color combinations.

    A - Agouti the location for red and tri genes and possibly saddle.
    K - Black, the location for dominant black and brindle
    D - Dilution, the location for dilution that causes blue and blue fawn

    At the agouti locus Red is dominant over tri, so reds can carry the tri gene and produce tris if bred to other tri carriers or to tris.

    At the K locus Black is considered dominant though in reality it is probably co-dominant with brindle but black stripes on black looks the same as black in most light. Neither black nor brindle is the recessive.

    At the dilution locus, dilute is recessive to non-dilute.

    Most basenjis are homozygous DD so usually when considering color genetics you do not have to deal too much with dilution unless you know there was a dilute or dilute carrier recently in the pedigree, such as Avongara Siri of Brushy Run or her sire or dam who both must have been carriers.

    In a red or tri basenji you also know they must be homozygous recessive at the K locus so then you are only really dealing with the Agouti genes. In black and brindle basenjis you need to consider both K and Agouti genes.

    I had made a chart for all of this. I will see if I can find it because it makes it so much more clear. While I look for that, there are some slides on basenji color genetics in my Genetic notes for my Biology class. Look at slides 50 and 51.

    mhtml:http://www.phs.wjusd.org/Voss/Genetics%202007.mht!Genetics2007_files/frame.htm

  • Looks like the mhtml needs to be included in the link, I had to copy and paste in into the address bar to get it to pull up:

    Good info!

  • You're right. I don't know why it didn't come through right. I cut and pasted straight out of my browser.

    I still haven't had a chance to look for my punnets for trindles and such.

  • oo! thankyou for your input thus far! it does make sense how you explained, but if at all possible I need to write out the whole genetic code for each color that I can get figured out. and then i need to try and explain inheritance of colors,and how to get(for example) a trindle from a tri and a brindle, I need to know how and why. Unfortunately even though i copied and pasted the whole link the page could not be found, i hope its just my computer acting up tonight.

    ~Charlene

  • If the link isn't working the you can go to my Notes Index page and scroll down until you find Genetics and open from there.

    http://www.phs.wjusd.org/Voss/Notes.htm

  • My file was in Word so I made a mhtml file out of it but the formatting is a little wierd, readable but weird.

    http://kineticbasenjis.tripod.com/Information/Color_genetics.mht

  • The bottom line with all of this is that anyone you are trying to explain this to will need a basic understanding of genetics and punnet squares. If you have the dilute gene involved it becomes even more complicated, a 64 box punnet square, if you are looking to predict probability of producing a specific combination.

  • Here are the gene combinations that give the following phenotypes. Using the key:
    D - not dilute d- dilute
    Y - Red y - tri
    K - Black K^br - brindle k - neither black nor brindle

    Red and White - DDkkYY, DDkkYy, DdkkYY, DdkkYy

    Black and White - DDKkYY, DDKkYy, DDKkyy, DDKKYY, DDKKYy, DDKKyy, DdKkYY, DdKkYy, DdKkyy, DdKKYY, DdKKYy, DdKKyy, DDKK^brYY, DDKK^brYy, DDKK^bryy, DdKK^brYY, DdKK^brYy, DdKK^bryy

    Brindle and White - DDK^brkYY, DDK^brkYy, DDK^brK^brYY, DDK^brK^brYy, DdK^brkYY, DdK^brkYy, DdK^brK^brYY, DdK^brK^brYy

    Tri-color - DDkkyy, Ddkkyy

    Trindle - DdK^brK^bryy, DdK^brkyy, DDK^brK^bryy, DDK^brkyy

    Blue and White - ddKkYY, ddKkYy, ddKkyy, ddKKYY, ddKKYy, ddKKyy,ddKK^brYY, ddKK^brYy, ddKK^bryy

    Blue Fawn and White - ddkkYY, ddkkYy

    Blue Tri - ddkkyy

    Blue Brindle and White - ddK^brkYY, ddK^brkYy, ddK^brK^brYY, ddK^brK^brYy

  • While cruising the new posts I came across this one and can't really offer any help (even if I am a biologist). However, I just had to say it made my head spin and my eyes cross :D (I remember now, that's why I had a hard time in genetics class!).

  • I posted curiously a year and a half ago on this. This thread may be of some help to you - but again - since I'm not a breeder, some of it made sense to me:

    http://www.basenjiforums.com/showthread.php?t=632

    Good luck with your chart - always interesting - hope you post the final draft here.

    @SenjiShowgirl:

    I have always liked researching genetics and basenjis are my breed. so it is only natural that I need to make a chart of genetic color inheritance for them. I am making this chart to also help out a dog sim game that is just now implementing color genetics into the game. As I am one of the top "kennels" on this game I have volunteered to go out and find all the info I can to make the best of these colors. Since the basenji color scheme is fairly limited we are interested in adding some of the rarer colors,and fault colors too.

    If anyone would be willing to help me figure out and write up a genetics chart for basenjis it would be greatly appreciated.

    the colors I would like to see implemented are as follows:

    Red and White
    Black and White
    Brindle and White
    Tri-color
    Trindle
    Blue and White
    Cream and White
    Sable
    Mohogany and White

    please help!

    ~Charlene

  • @wizard:

    While cruising the new posts I came across this one and can't really offer any help (even if I am a biologist). However, I just had to say it made my head spin and my eyes cross :D (I remember now, that's why I had a hard time in genetics class!).

    haha ya i was like that at first. then i got into it a little more. maybe this other forum can help you, it helped me alot! :) we are actually still going at it!

    http://www.basenjiforums.com/showthread.php?t=8751&goto=newpost

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