• Subject: RE: iris DIGEST V1 #1023
• From: C* S* <i*@hotmail.com>
• Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:11:36 -0600

Hello,

The ladder of dominance for rabbits is as follows.



The capitalized letters are the dominant ones...the dominant ones are
always at the top...and the genes that are recessive to the dominant
ones are below it...hence it being named the "ladder of dominance".
Each series is separate.  The A series has no control over the B
series...but some of them can affect the way that the others look.  For
example, the e series "e" will turn a black agouti to a red by removing
the black pigment.  It also removes a lot of the black pigment from a
self black...making the rabbit have "points" similar to a fawn boxer
dog.  This is called tortoiseshell (abbreviated "torte" in many rabbit
circles)...but doesn't look at all like a tortoiseshell cat.



A-Agouti (dominant wild color)

at-tan (recessive to agouti but dominant over self)

a-self (recessive to both agouti and tan)



B-black

b-chocolate



C-full color

cchd-chin dark

cchl- chin light

ch-himi

c-red eyed white



D-non dilute

d-dilute



Es-steel

E-full extension

ej-japanese (harlequin)

e-non extension (tortoiseshell)



En-broken

en-solid



V-vienna

v-non vienna



W-wideband (controls the amount of pigment on the center band of pigment in
agoutis.)

w-normal bands



There's also a Dutch Gene and I don't know much about it because I don't have
it in my herd, but believe it is as follows.



Du-dutch

du-non dutch.



I do know that horses and dogs and cats aren't quite the same.  I do know that
wolves and coyotes are Agoutis tho.  Agouti causes the "ring" pattern seen
when you blow into the fur.  Selfs will appear a solid color almost all the
way to the center of the coat (where it will fade gently to white) of an
animal.



The genetics of MOST wild rabbits are mostly dominant genes...they look like
this.



AA BB CC DD EE enen dudu ww  Notice that all are dual (2 genes=diploid)
pairings...and with irises being tetraploids (4 genes) they would look
more like this.



AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD EEEE enenenen dudududu wwww.

Most people don't pay much attention to the genes past the broken (En) series
as the dutch, vienna and wideband genes don't affect most breeds.



Speaking of rabbits...if some of you also raise roses and other garden
plants and want to go more organic...check out how great rabbit manure
is for gardens.  I put my manure straight on my garden without having
to let it break down with no problems.  It is about a 6 in
nitrogen...so perhaps this may not work for irises...but before I knew
this, I put irises straight into 1 year old manure (pure manure) and
the irises did just fine.  The one thing you want to watch out for if
you decide to use rabbit manure is that many breeders mix it with wood
shavings.  The wood shavings are very hard on a garden straight
in...trust me, I tried it, and that part of the garden did NOT do
well.  :)  Tomatoes and potatoes seem to do exceptionally well in
rabbit manure enriched soil...as does broccoli, brussel sprouts,
zucchini, corn, carrots, and many other flowers as well.



Well, anyway, this gives you an example of a ladder of dominance for rabbits
but there are a couple of other things that can also affect the color.  For
example, look at a black angora and a black mini rex.  The angora has the same
amount of pigment as the mini rex, but the angora has the pigment spread out
over a LONG shaft of fur from root to tip.  The Mini rex has the same pigment
numbers as well, but it is spread out in a very SHORT fur shaft from root to
tip making it appear much darker  (it is actually more concentrated).

Another factor that isn't a gene at all is called "rufus" and it affects ONLY
the red pigment and is shown as + and - symbols.  A +++++ rabbit would be very
red in comparison to a --- rabbit.  Rufus is an example of a "modifer" and it
actually adds or deletes more (red only) to the fur shaft.  A Thrianta is an
example of a breed with a TON of + rufus modifers,  They are an agouti, but
they appear self because there is so much red in the coat.

I have made some personal observations about irises and will perhaps share
them one day...but they are very hard for me to explain...and I really don't
know anything at all about the genetics of irises so prefer not to comment on
it until I know at least a bit more about them.  I can certainly see why the
genetics are so confusing and unpredicatable.  There are so many factors that
affect color and patterns in irises that it is stunning.  I can hardly wait to
get into the "picture pedigrees" so that I can start learning what patterns
are dominant!  :)

Thanks for the info to look into.  I found that man's name from your last
post.  I will do some reading and see what info I can glean.  :)  Cindy

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