The Agouti gene expresses itself in a great variety of ways. I've already shown you Braveheart, who is Ag on brown. No surprises with him so far; his body fleece faded but his points (head and legs) remain the same. Then there is Rechel, my Ag grey ewe. Here she is last fall:
Last spring:
Mid-summer:
And now, just starting to darken in the face again:
Her fleece is pretty much white, with a few stray black strands:
Although she does have spots (which she has passed on to her lambs):
With her extreme fading in the summer, I wondered if Rechel might be Ag/Ag, but one look at her pedigree shows she has to be Ag/Aa, because her sire is listed as moorit. And it's not all that clear where she got her Ag gene from. Her dam is listed as a grey katmoget out of an emsket and a black/white/grey(???). This is why colors can get so confusing, and why some of us are so "het up" about getting an accurate description of genotype pinned down!
That's it for now from . . .
1 comment:
I don't know if sheep coloring genetics bear any similarities with those of angora rabbits, but Chris Morgan of Woolybuns (woolybuns@german-angoras.com) teaches bunny color genetics (5 gene loci involved) - she might have some info which could help. Worth a try, anyway.
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