The planned litter can give the colors creme, golden, red, fawn/sable, Irish markings and parti-color. We may not get any black nor grizzle.
Today, I got some exiting news from UC Davis Veterinary medicine. A couple of weeks ago, I did a DNA test on Nomi. I was actually sitting here in the dark, as we have had some bad weather around here lately, we have had some black-outs. I was not expecting the results until a couple of weeks, but I logged in just to check anyway, and I was so exited to see that my results was ready!
When I was selecting a male for Nomi, I totally ignored the color of the male, as there are too many other so much more important considerations. My values are, in prioritized order: Health, temperament, function, movements, the breed standard, and avoiding too extreme interpretations of the standard.
However, that does not mean that I don't find it super fun and exiting to explore color DNA.
So - what did I find? - Before I tested Nomi, I figured that actually, the colors of the planned litter pretty much depended on Nomi's genes. This is what I knew before the test:
The combination of the planned litter with Zico could potentially result in a wide range of colours, from creme, to golden, red, black, grizzle, or even parti-color.
Zico has had a litter with a creme female before resulting in only black and grizzle puppies. So I am guessing that he is EE and at/at. He can not carry grizzle, because grizzle is dominant to black, so if he had carried grizzle, he would be grizzle. So his grizzle offspring must come from the female he was mated to, carrying this gene.
The puppies will get one allelle from each parent for each set of gene pairs.
There are many different combinations of genes that can give cream puppies:
e/e + at/at = clear creme (/golden/red)
e/e + at/ay = clear creme (/golden/red)
E/e + at/ay = creme (/golden/red)*
Eg/e + at/ay = creme (/golden/red)*
E g/e + ay/ay = creme (/golden/red)*
*may find a single black hair or sable/fawn.
To become black or grizzle, we need two "at":
E/e + at/at = black
E/E + at/at = black
Eg/e + at/at = grizzle
Eg/E + at/at = grizzle
Nomi's creme sister and creme mother are both Eg/e and at/ay. This means that they can give black and grizzle puppies amongst other colors, if they are mated to a male carrying at least one "at". To give a black puppy, the genes can be either E/E or E/e AND at/at. If the puppy has Eg/e and at/at, it will be a grizzle. But, if it is Eg/e and at/ay, the grizzle will not show. The puppy must get one "at" from each parent to be grizzle. The same goes for black. I was pretty sure that Nomi was a carrier of grizzle, because I found a black hair on her tail, and I have heard that if there is one single black hair, the dog can not be e/e.
The one allelle I was most curious about, was the Legacy agouty A - was she ay/ay, or at/ay? Her sisters was at/ay and her mother. If she had been at/ay, and if Zico is at/at, then 75% of the puppies would have been some form of black or grizzle, and the rest some form of creme, golden or red. (Could be parti-coloured as well). If she had been at/at and it was e/e that gave her the golden colour, and Zico was at/at as well, then all the puppies would have been black or grizzle if Zico is E/E.
Oh, how my brain has been playing around with all these possibilities. I love how the Saluki has so many variations in type and color.
Nomi's test results:
E locus | Eg / e | One copy of grizzle and one red / yellow/cream |
B locus | B / B | No brown |
Dilute | D / D | No dilution |
K locus (black) | N/N | No dominant black mutation |
Legacy agouti | ay / ay | Homogenous for fawn/sable |
Agouti (A locus) | ASIP DY / ASIP SY | One copy of dominant* yellow and one of shaded** yellow. |
Piebald (S locus) | N/S | 1 copy of piebald giving her irish markings |
*fawn, sable, red, cream, tan **shaded sable, shaded fawn, fawn, sable, red, cream, tan
Now I have the answer. Nomi is Eg/e and ay/ay. This means that she can not give black or grizzle puppies. She carries grizzle, so she can pass on the gene down to her puppies, but since she has no "at" - allele, they can not become grizzle or black. Even if she is mated with a black male, the puppies will not become black.
Not all genes for colors have been detected yet, so there can be some factors that we can not test for, so nothing is 100 % sure, but in theory, these are the colors we expect from the planned litter:
Creme
Golden
Red
Fawn/sable
Irish markings
Parti-color*
*The Parti-color works like a white sheet with "holes" in it on top of the other colours. That means that we will not get dark black spots if we get any parti-colour. The spots will be creme, golden, or red. Perhaps with some shaded sable, clear sable or fawn.
I would like to give credit for some of my content on DNA to Sommarvindens Salukis, where a lot of my research have been inspired from.
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