Color Genetic Exercise

As we know, babies take one copy of the color gene from each parent.    In today's post, we'll play the game of filling in the blanks of the parents' color genes with information from the babies.    The sire of the babies in the photos is a REW and dam is a blue.     

We don't get much information on REW from visualization, it's ----cc---- , translates to "the rabbit is an albino but the rest of the color genes is unknown".    

The basic color genes of blue is: aaB-C-ddE- , translates to self with black (B),  full color (C) and dilute (dd) and the color is extended (E).  

These three babies are black tort.  Black tort is aaB-C-D-ee.   that indicates both parents have at least an a, the sire has a D and both parents have at least an e.

This is another picture of the three black tort bunnies.    Now we know a bit more of the parents' color genes:

Sire REW   -a--ccD--e

Dam Blue  aaB-C-ddEe

Comparing to the basic REW, we learn that the sire has a self gene, a dense (D) gene and a non-extension gene (e); the dam has an non-extension gene (e).  

There are three fawn bunnies in the same litter.   It's not totally clear whether they are black based fawn or chocolate based fawn as there are a bit of grayish tips on the ears and on the nose, thus we cannot for sure put in a chocolate gene b.     The basic color genes of a fawn is  A---C-D-ee   and since the dam is a blue, we can decide that the agouti gene A came from the REW sire.  

Here is a closer look at the three fawn bunnies.    Now we are able to fill in a bit more blanks of their parents' color genes:

REW sire: Aa--ccD--e

Blue dam: aaB-C-ddEe

In addition to the three black torts and three fawns, there is the 7th baby, a chestnut.   

The chestnut color genes are: A-B-C-D-E-.  All these color genes have been identified in the parents color gene already, no new information added.    We are sure that REW sire is Aa--ccD--e and the blue dam is aaB-C-ddEe.

Since there is no REW in the litter, it is likely that the blue dam does not carry c, so we could guesstimate that she is 

aaB-CCddEe.   Since there is no dilute bunnies in the litter, though not totally sure,  we can speculate that the sire does not carry d, and we could tentatively put a D there: Aa--ccDD-e.      

One more piece of information: the mother of the blue dam is a chocolate agouti, so the blue dam should carry the chocolate gene b.  From the information of an earlier generation, the blue dam's last blank is filled:  aaBbCCddEe.

Just for fun, here is a photo of the 7 bunnies when they were younger.   The bunnies on the left have dark ears which show that the bunnies are self color, thus black tort; the 4 bunnies on the right have light ears indicate that the bunnies are agouti patterned, thus fawn and chestnut.