- If any of the assertions below contradict what you believe about alpaca base coat color genetics, it’s definitely worth reading this blog post and continuing on to a very friendly, fun-loving statistical analysis that is available in our website’s library! 1. First, all white alpacas can produce color when they are bred to it. There is no such thing as a homozygous dominant white animal. In fact, a pink-skinned white is in some ways as recessive a creature as a true black. 2. What’s more, many fawns are not just “dilute” but carry a white base coat color allele, which acts to dilute a brown allele in the production of the phenotypic coat color. You can actually breed two fawns together and get a homozygous white. 3. White breeders, no need to rely on those pure-white pedigrees to make sure you don’t produce fawns and browns. Turns out a brown allele can’t really hide itself well phenotypically. 4. Color breeders, to introduce white genetics into a color breeding program with lower odds of producing white offspring, breed that white animal to brown. The darker, the better. more »
- Every now and then, on an alpaca farm somewhere in Australia, the day brings an unexpected arrival, a new suri cria ... with spots! When that cria has two solid coloured parents, it is more of a surprise. more »
- To make predictions about coat color, or almost any other trait, in cria from specific breedings you need to understand some basic rules of genetics. Coat color is determined by genetics. When people say something is genetically determined, what they are really talking about is DNA. DNA is what codes for all of the proteins (things like hemoglobin, albumin, melanin, insulin, keratin tissues, hormones all the stuff that make up an alpaca), and for the instructions on how, when and where to make these proteins within the alpaca. Segments of DNA that code for proteins are called genes. more »
- Alpaca breeders, unlike those of other species in a not-so-distant past, will not have to resort to numerous and time consuming test breedings to establish inheritance of color genes. We will soon know... with the competent help of one very busy, very knowledgeable woman and a few drops of blood... exactly why that alpaca is red or black. Imagine that! more »
- Over the past seven years the team at the Alpaca Molecular Research group at Curtin University has been researching the inheritance patterns and molecular causes of colour in alpacas. Using a combination of Mendelian genetics principles, molecular genetic techniques, objective chemical analysis of the fibre and observation of skin and nail colour we have been able to arrive at a model that, we think, describes most of the colour variation in alpacas. The current nomenclature for alpaca colours contributes to the confusion. One person's fawn is another's light brown and one person's mid brown is another's red brown. We therefore propose a new set of names for base colour varieties that reflects the genetic basis of the colour. more »