#basic genetics

Jane doe- Mackerel fawn tabby(dam of the litter)

John Doe- Mackerel cream tabby(Sire of the litter)

Noob Doe- Mackerel fawn and cream tabby tortoiseshell(Only Kitten from litter)

A small family tree for deerstar’s lineage. Perhaps more shall be revealed about the unknown cats later..

Note-

I really like the idea that Deer’star named his son in relation to him because he believed he would follow in his paw steps as the successor he wanted, whereas Elk’branch rejected this, eventually growing to like his name not because of its origin but because of what he made it to be. Stronger, and more meaningful. He named his daughter Caribou as a way to show that she would grow to be whatever she made it, that she would not be held down by a name or her grandfathers expectations, after all- while Caribou and deer have the same origin, a deer cannot compare to the greater, stronger, and unwavering stride of the caribou.

Since i'll use some basic genetic terms, I think it's useful to make sure everyone here is familiar with them.

General terms:

Gene: Well, i'll use this word as one piece of information. A short section in the DNA which determines the quality of one feature. Example: fur length gene.

Allele: The "value" of the gene. In the previous example the possible alleles are longhaired and shorthaired. Generally a cat has two of them for every gene.

Homozygote: An organism that has two of the same alleles for a given gene, for example two copies of the longhaired allele.

Heterozygote: Similarly, an organism that carries two different alleles: shorthaired/longhaired.

Genotype: The totality of the carried alleles.

Phenotype: The observable feature; so that the cat is in fact short haired or long haired.

Wild type: The original allele. In this case basically the allele of the wild ancestor of our housecats.

Variant: Actually I'm not sure if this is a real geneticist's term but I'll use this as mutant, "not wild type" allele.

Dominant/recessive: In heterozygotes one allele might overwrite the effect of the other. The allele whose will prevails called dominant, the other one is the recessive. (In our old example the shorthaired allele is the dominant, so a cat with the shorthaired/longhaired genotype will be short haired.)

Codominant: two alleles that can share the phenotype: both of them will be expressed in a heterozygote. (Like the tortoiseshell cat: carries both the black and the orange allele, and expresses both, too.)

Intermediate: The heterozygote have a new (often literally intermediate between the two homozygotes) phenotype.

Epistasis: An allele overrides the effect of an other gene. For example the allele responsible for solid cats is epistatic over every pattern-related gene: no pattern, no visible effect.

The science of cats

Eumelanin: Very important, widespread pigment among mammals. Black, brown and grey shades are due to this molecule.

Pheomelanin: The other mammalian pigment. It participates in the creation of yellow and red tones.

Agouti/Banded hair: Lots of mammals has the so-called agouti pattern; this means their individual hairs are striped.

Tabby: Agouti cats are called tabbies. They often has some nonagouti hairs arranged in a certain pattern. There are four common options:

No fullcolored hairs -> ticked tabby

The fullcolored hairs form little circular patches -> spotted tabby

The fullcolored hairs form narrow vertical lines -> mackerel tabby