Maestros’ Brood

A single gx gene seems to have very little difference if any to most of the gxg coat color combinations, except for the Azure Slate coat colour which is noticeably lighter than a normal Slate coat colour. Colorpoint, Light Colorpoint, and pink-eyed dilute  gxgx combinations are assumed to be White.  All gg Gerbils as we know them run a similar pattern. in some colors, for instance the Resn, has some change in color (dilutes further) if it is gxg.  If it is gxgx Resn it becomes an all white gerbil with ruby eyes.

Several of these genotypes have white coats and ruby eyes, and only through test breeding with separator gerbils will you be 100% sure of what the gerbil’s actual genotype is.

Now let’s look at the above table again, but this time we can apply our hypothesis to the above genotypes and switch genetic notation. Below I’ve set out the allele heirarchy in order of dominance;

Heirarchy of Alleles

Uw- Full Colour.  Formerly G

uw(d)- Grey. Formerly ‘g’

uw- Cream. Formerly ‘g(x)’

Now that we understand what the (x) is in Michelle’s g(x) mutation that sits on the locus that was tentatively assigned as “Grey” by geneticists, it now becomes difficult (not to mention inaccurate) to use the old genetic notation for this allele.  We cannot continue to call it g(x) , and neither can we continue to refer to this locus as being solely “grey”.  I do realise it maybe hard for people to switch, after all we discovered way back in 2000 that Burmese gerbils were created by chinchilla medium, a similar, but different gene to that which creates the Burmese cat and changed our notation accordingly, but here we are 9 years later and people still find it hard to write c(chm) and still persist in writing it as c(b)  

However the transition shouldn’t be too painful for our gerbil geneticists out there! A few examples would be notated thus;

Golden Agouti- A-C-D-E-Uw-P-

Grey Agouti- A-C-D-E-uw(d)uw(d)P-

Black- aaC-D-E-Uw-P-

Slate- aaC-D-E-uw(d)uw(d)P-

Satin (Cream mutation)- –C-D-E-uwuwP-

Azure Slate- aaC-D-E-uwuw(d)P-

Instead of the “Grey locus” we can just as easily use the correct genetic notation for this locus which is applicable to the Underwhite series of alleles.  We certainly can’t call this locus the Grey locus anymore as test breeding has proven that this particular locus produces cream gerbil’s too, and using the same logic, we can not call it the Cream locus either!

I realise that in horses this locus is known as the Cream locus, however the horse community only have a single allele at this locus, which is associated with Underwhite dominant brown, but in the gerbil fancy we are in a very unique position as we not only have the recessive cream mutation on this locus, but the recessive grey mutation as well. These two mutant alleles do not exist together in any fancy, not even in the mouse fancy either as far as I’m aware.  For the mouse, these rare alleles only exist in embryo in cryogenic suspension at labs such as Jackson and Harwell, and are used in the ongoing research in OCA4.  In respect to previous researchers of this unique series of alleles it is only fair that we should name the locus Underwhite.  The previous names for Grey Agouti and Slate are fine to use. Both are accurate and very descriptive, so changing their names would only invite confusion into a fancy that already has some very dubious names attached to certain colour varieties.