Natural History

Posted in golden retriever | Tagged golden retriever, golden retriever mix | 4 Comments

4 Responses

1. on August 25, 2013 at 6:27 pm chervilmeadow

   You probably know more about it than me, but I believe black is usually dominant in dog breeds, but I believe there also exists a recessive black gene?

   
   
   • on August 25, 2013 at 6:51 pm retrieverman

     There is but not in golden retrievers.

     Golden retrievers are generally cryptic dominant black dogs. One cross with something that is recessive to black but dominant to yellow will produce black puppies.

     
     
2. on August 25, 2013 at 8:52 pm M.R.S.

   On what Dr Little called the E locus, E allows the expression of eumelanin (black pigment) in the hair. Homozygous ee prevents that expression, even if there are genes for black at other loci . Hence Little used the term “epistatic” foe the ee (red/yellow) — it can affect the expression of genes not at the E/e locus. No doubt more recent researchers have a more detailed explanation, but that works for most purposes.

   This explains why Golden retrievers can carry the genes for color patterns such as black-and-tan and sable that then can be expressed in their offspring that inherit E from the other parent.

   
   
3. on August 26, 2013 at 8:03 am massugu

   He really does have that GR look doesn’t he?

   
   

Comments are closed.