Color Genetics
The Professional and Extended Editions of Breeders Assistant have the means to predict the genotypes that will result from a mating, based on the known genotypes of the parents.
The primary purpose of this facility is to enable predictions of coat color to be included in documents such as mating certificates1 and trial mating pedigrees.
Storing Color Genotypes
All editions of Breeders Assistant include boxes to store the genotypes of your animals. These boxes are found on the Genotype2 tab of the animal details window.
E.g. if you are a dog breeder you might enter Bb Dd in the color genotype box for a dog that carries liver/chocolate (Bb) and blue (Dd).
The Personal Edition treats these genotype boxes much as any other - they are simply text fields that are stored alongside the rest of the animal details, and they can be included in pedigrees etc., but otherwise no special significance is attached to them.
With the Professional and Extended Editions, and depending on your version of Breeders Assistant (see table below), you can select a 'gene configuration', tailored to a particular breed, which gives the software some intelligence about these fields.
A gene configuration can provide a friendlier way to enter the genotypes. Instead of just manually keying them into the boxes, a gene configuration can make it possible to select the disposition of each gene using pulldown menus, for example:
Predicting Color Genotypes For Matings
The software can use the stored genotypes to make predictions as to the outcomes of matings. Many breeders know that the colors/patterns of the offspring from any given mating depend on the color genotype of the parents. If you know those genotypes, you can sometimes systematically work out the possibilities the mating will give rise to, and hence the distribution of colors/patterns that can theoretically be expected.
Breeders Assistant can do this for you instead of working it out by hand. The results of such a prediction can be included in trial mating pedigrees and mating certificates1.
Feline and Canine Color Genetics
Please see the articles on cat and dog color genetics on this site for further information about feline and canine coat color genetics, including worked examples showing color prediction with Breeders Assistant.
Gene Configurations
The available gene configurations supplied with Breeders Assistant are version specific. E.g. the cat and dog versions have many more gene configurations available than other versions.
Note that for those versions where a gene configuration is not provided for your breed/species, it is still possible to use the genotype prediction mechanism but you would need to create a gene configuration yourself. Instructions for doing this including a worked example are supplied in the Help Reference.
The following table details the standard gene configurations that are currently supplied with the different versions of Breeders Assistant. They are provided as fixed gene configurations (not user modifiable). It is possible to obtain an individual gene configuration in a modifiable format by purchasing a license enhancement.
| Breeders Assistant Version | Available Gene Configurations |
|---|---|
| Cats |
Abyssinian, American Curl, American Shorthair, American Wirehair, Angora, Balinese and Javanese, Bengal, Birman, Bombay and Asian, British Shorthair, Burmese, Burmilla, Colourpoint, Cornish Rex, Devon Rex, Egyptian Mau, Foreign White, Havana Brown, Japanese Bobtail, Maine Coon, Manx and Cymric, Norwegian Forest Cat, Oriental Longhair, Oriental Shorthair, Persian, Ragdoll, Scottish Fold, Selkirk Rex, Siamese, Siberian, Singapura, Somali, Sphynx, Tiffanie, Tonkinese and Turkish Van. In addition a generic configuration is supplied for use with other breeds and which uses a breed-independent nomenclature for the expressed colors. For background information on the underlying genetics please see the article on cat color genetics. |
| Dogs |
Afghan Hound, Akita, American Cocker Spaniel, Australian Shepherd, Basenji, Beagle, Border Collie, Boxer, Brittany, Bulldog, Chihuahua, Collie, Corgi, Dachshund, Dalmatian, Dobermann, Elkhound, English Cocker Spaniel, English Setter, English Springer Spaniel, Field Spaniel, Fox Terrier, Foxhound, French Bulldog, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Gordon Setter, Great Dane, Greyhound, Irish Setter, Irish Wolfhound, King Charles Spaniel, Labrador Retriever, Newfoundland, Old English Sheepdog, Papillon, Pekingese, Pointer, Pomeranian, Poodle, Pug, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Rottweiler, Schnauzer, Scottish Terrier, Shetland Sheepdog, Weimaraner, West Highland White Terrier, Whippet, White Shepherd and Yorkshire Terrier. In addition a generic configuration is supplied for use with other breeds and which uses a breed-independent nomenclature for the expressed colors. For background information on the underlying genetics please see the article on dog color genetics. |
| Cavies, Horses, Rabbits, Rats | A single, 'standard' configuration is supplied for these versions. |
| Birds | Cockatiel, Zebra Finch. |
| Hamsters |
Syrian, Campbells. These are supplied in text format as they were created by a user of the product who kindly gave permission for Tenset to distribute them. |
| Generic | This version does not ship with any pre-configured gene configurations. |
1. Mating certificates are only available with the cat, dog and 'Generic' versions of Breeders Assistant.
2. Advanced animal records mode needed with some versions of Breeders Assistant, such as the cat and dog versions. To enable this, select Preferences from the Configure menu, move to the User Interface tab, then enable the advanced records mode.
