For example: a cream mother and a blue father can only produce cream male kittens together. The mother determines the colour of the male kittens in each litter. Which one the mother passes on is of no significance to the gender of the offspring, since it is always an X. The bold and underlined letters symbolise the chromosomes that are passed on. Mother + father = offspring or mother + father = offspring So the father determines the sex of the kittens: A male has an X as well as a Y, so he can pass on an X to produce a daughter (together with the mother’s X it forms XX) or he can pass on a Y to produce a son (together with the mother’s X it forms XY) A female has two X’s and can only pass on one X. The male pair of chromosomes looks like this: XY. Females always carry two X-chromosomes, so the pair of chromosomes that defines the female sex looks like this: XX. An X-chromosome is feminine, a Y-chromosome is masculine. One of these pairs of chromosomes determines the gender. So mother and father each pass on half of their chromosomes to their offspring, so that this offspring can construct a complete set with it. Each pair is formed by one chromosome that is inherited from its mother, and another chromosome which is inherited from its father. I’ll try to explain the most important words you often see when reading about genetic traits:Įvery animal has numerous pairs of chromosomes. I noticed that breeders sometimes ascribe colours to their kittens which they simply can’t have according to the laws of genetics, I’m hoping this article can be of some assistance in avoiding those mistakes. Credits go to Kathy from (former cattery Zero Pelagio) for this beautiful and clearly written text.īeing a starting breeder myself, I know that feline genetics is a maze of symbols and jargon that are not very evident for a novice, so I want to try and explain a few basic principles in this article.
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