Sex linked stupid color question

[dayna]

LOL I thought I would throw in my own!

I know cockatiel genetics really really well. Quite a few colors are sex linked. Those are fun because you know the sex of the chick right away.

Are there sex linked rabbit colors?

 

[Cattle Cait]

Nope, not that I know of.

 

[Dood]

No

Rabbits and all mammal use the X & Y symbols for gender while birds use Z & W and have MANY sex - linked colour genes.

If you think rabbits is tough, just try figuring out a chickens genotype !

 

[dayna]

DRATS!

 

[akane]

I don't know of any mammals with sex linked color genes. We never covered any in genetics class. It was a challenge to understand when I started first with chicken genetics (I have 3 books and I only understand about half the info) and then budgies which were simpler.

 

[dayna]

Once you figure out cockatiel genetics they are very very easy. I just need to study rabbit genetics. I will at some point, when I can read easily again. I know that day will come!!!! I've already learned quite a bit just from reading here and answering a few questions.

 

[DogCatMom]

My vet explained to me several years ago why it was soooo difficult to find certain combinations of sex + color in cats.

95% of orange-colored cats ("ginger"-colored cats in Britain and--maybe?--Canada) are male

95% of tortoise-shell colored cats are female

While it *is* possible to get an orange female or a tortie male, it's pretty rare! I'm not sure whether this qualifies as a "sex-linked coat color," though, because it's not a 100% correspondence.

 

[hoodat]

I know very little about rabbit genetics but I do know that I get a blue kit in almost every batch and so far every one has been a buck. It doesn't happen with the broken blues, only the selfs.

 

[Dood]

Dang! I forgot about Tortoishell and Calico cats !

But it is not 'really' sex linked like in birds but has to do with one of a female embryo's 'X' chromosomes becoming inactive during cell division and creating a chimera effect in the kitten.

 

[JessiL]

As Dood said, tortoise-shell and calico cats are XX mosaics. The orange and black colors are controlled at the same locus on the X-chromosome, so a male (being XY) will always only express its single orange or black gene. Each cell in all female XX animals must inactivate one of its X-chromosomes during development. So if your XX cat has orange on one X chromosome and black on the other, it will end up looking like a patchwork of orange and black (torti) or orange, black, and white (calico; the white is due to the actions of a different gene probably rather like the broken gene in rabbits). Many of the few rare calico or tortoiseshell male cats are likely XXY or similar extra-X individuals.

Hmm, I can't think of any sex-linked rabbit colors either...