Gene O, o

Colours with red

Now - only with 3 genes - we know already the genetic fingerprints of a lot of colours.

My red cat has so many stripes

Is there any difference between a red and a red tabby ?
Particularly not. Red and red tabby cats are the same. Red self is the result of selective breeding. There are taken red tabby - mostly blotched - which show very little pattern to breed Red selves. The more often this procedure is repeated the more the pattern will get blurred, so that in the end the tabby pattern cannot be seen. You can see in the Red selves that they are tabbies if you look at their face, where they show the "M" on the forehead, mostly you will also find the most upper ring on the front legs to be present.
Selective breeding is also necessary to avoid the white locket on the throat and the white patch on the tail tip. The older the cats are, the larger is usually the white patch on their tail tip.
From the phenotype you cannot see if your red tabby cat is an agouti tabby or not, because the Agouti gene which turns "black" hairs into yellow banded hairs cannot fully operate on orange hairs. This fact is discussed in the lesson about the Agouti gene.

All cats which are not red carry the gene combination oo.

How can this theoretical knowledge be used for the breeding practice ?

Think about the following gene combinations:

• BB OO
• Bb OO
• bb OO
• b b^l OO
• b^l b^l OO

All these cats - females - are red or cream, if they have dd. On behalf of the gene O you can see the meaning of Mimic gene, another mimic gene is the gene W responsible for an overall white coat colour. If you want to find out if your cat carries black, chocolate or cinnamon you must have a closer look at the pedigree or do a test mating with your cat. For example, if you want to know if your cat carries chocolate you have to mate her with a chocolate male.

You want to breed a red female.

Our male has the gene combination: BB D- OY
Our female has the gene combination: BB D- oo

With these cats red females will never be produced. There will be also no red males born. There will be born only tortie girls.

Example 3:

We change the colours between the male and the female. We cross a black male with a red female.
Our male has the gene combination: BB D- oY
Our female has the gene combination: BB D- OO

With this combination only red/cream males and tortie females will be born, There are still no red females born.
You will also not get a red female, if you use a tortie female. You can try it.

Example 4: We cross a red male with a black tortie female

Our male has the gene combination: BB D- OY
Our female has the gene combination: BB D- Oo

You will get red females only when both parent have red, that means at least the female must be a tortie which is crossed with a red male. Of course you will get red females when both parent are red.