I was trying to explain coat colour genetics to my non-sciency sibling 
She was getting drowned in genotype nomenclature and said - "this looks like math.... I HATE math !!" so I tried a hands on approach
Her craft box was on the table so I pulled out some bottles of paint - one for each locus - A,B,C,D,E and one for each recessive in that locus. I explained that the coat colour loci are like different colours of paint and each loci can have 1 to 4 recessive colours : the A-locus only has three options - agouti l, tan or self while C-locus has 5 - full colour, dark shaded(chinchilla), light shaded(sable), himilayan or REW.
The basic start is chestnut (black agouti) and it is the most dominant and hides all others (with 3 exceptions :mrgreen: ) which is why it is all in capital letters - A_ B_ C_ D_ E_
A rabbit (or dog or horse or mouse etc...) gets a colour from each parent, and needs two copies of a recessive colour to change it from being plain old chestnut, one copy is usually not enough (but there are exceptions) By mixing and matching the loci colours and the recessive within a loci you change the colour and/or ring pattern of a rabbit and get the 144+ colours of rabbits
If you add self (aa) to a chestnut coloured rabbit you get blacks = aa B_ C_ D_ E_
If you add non extension you get fawns (agouti, non-ext) = A_ B_ C_ D_ ee
If you add BOTH self and non extension they mix or blend to create black torts = aa B_ C_ D_ ee
If you add self, non extension AND blue they blend to make blue torts (self, blue, non-ext) = aa B_ C_ dd ee
If you add self, non extension, blue AND shaded they blend to make blue sable points = aa B_ cchl_ dd ee
And so on ....
Then she asks why I didn't explain it this way 10 years ago :groooan:
She was getting drowned in genotype nomenclature and said - "this looks like math.... I HATE math !!" so I tried a hands on approach
Her craft box was on the table so I pulled out some bottles of paint - one for each locus - A,B,C,D,E and one for each recessive in that locus. I explained that the coat colour loci are like different colours of paint and each loci can have 1 to 4 recessive colours : the A-locus only has three options - agouti l, tan or self while C-locus has 5 - full colour, dark shaded(chinchilla), light shaded(sable), himilayan or REW.
The basic start is chestnut (black agouti) and it is the most dominant and hides all others (with 3 exceptions :mrgreen: ) which is why it is all in capital letters - A_ B_ C_ D_ E_
A rabbit (or dog or horse or mouse etc...) gets a colour from each parent, and needs two copies of a recessive colour to change it from being plain old chestnut, one copy is usually not enough (but there are exceptions) By mixing and matching the loci colours and the recessive within a loci you change the colour and/or ring pattern of a rabbit and get the 144+ colours of rabbits
If you add self (aa) to a chestnut coloured rabbit you get blacks = aa B_ C_ D_ E_
If you add non extension you get fawns (agouti, non-ext) = A_ B_ C_ D_ ee
If you add BOTH self and non extension they mix or blend to create black torts = aa B_ C_ D_ ee
If you add self, non extension AND blue they blend to make blue torts (self, blue, non-ext) = aa B_ C_ dd ee
If you add self, non extension, blue AND shaded they blend to make blue sable points = aa B_ cchl_ dd ee
And so on ....
Then she asks why I didn't explain it this way 10 years ago :groooan:
