A Deeper Look at the Genetics of Sheep Color

About A Deeper Look at the Genetics of Sheep Color

Prerequisite: An Introduction to the Biology of Sheep Color (otherwise you’ll be lost in this class)

Did you know that, if you breed a yellow labrador to a yellow golden retriever, all the puppies will be black? These are the kinds of surprises that color genes can produce. It’s the same in sheep: white lambs from black parents; black lambs from white parents, red lambs from any other color. In this session We will go into the genes that govern color and pattern in sheep, starting with the basic genes that code for black, brown, white and spots. We’ll go into some detail about the mutation that created white sheep, and its evolutionary history, showing how white sheep probably occurred more than once in different parts of the world. We will also cover the two different kinds of black sheep and why one of those types can be hidden for generations of white sheep and then suddenly show up as a black lamb, while the other can hide all sorts of other colors for generations, and then suddenly produce a white or colored lamb. We will discuss the various pattern genes that sometimes show up as different colors, but are really underlying patterns. We’ll go over how to breed for a brown sheep, a white sheep or a grey sheep; how to get rid of (or encourage) spots, and discuss any other breeding decisions anyone would like to ask about. At the end (if there’s time) we’ll have a Quiz!