This is going to be a brief and hopefully simple explanation of rabbit genetics. Although I don’t think you can ever really make rabbit genes simple. Lets start out with some basic rules of genetics. The first rule is that a capital letter is dominant over a lowercase letter. Example: (A) would be dominate over (a). There can be a combination of capital and lowercase letters depending on the rabbit’s color. Example: A_A_A_A_A would be dominate over a_a_a_a_a. But there are also genotypes that look like this: Aa_A_Aa_a, the possibilities are almost endless. So what is happening in this sequence Aa_A_Aa_a? There is a dominate gene Aa_A_Aa_a that is hiding all the less dominate genes Aa_A_Aa_a, and the only way that you can bring those hiding less dominate genes out is by breeding it to another rabbit with corresponding recessive genes. Example: Aa_A_Aa_a bred to Aa_A_Aa_a would theoretically make: a_A_a_a. Those are the basic and simple rules that you need to know to uses on rabbit genetics.
We are going to talk about 5 different alleles in this course (A_B_C_D_E) there are a few more, but those you only need to learn if you are going to be breeding VM (Vienna marked), En (butterflied rabbits) and W (wideband/red).
But back to the 5 that we are actually going to be talking about! The first one is (A) and that gene determines how many colors are on the hair shaft. The rabbit with the most colors on its hair shaft would be the Chestnut or Agouti rabbit. Its color is the closest to a wild rabbits color its the most dominate color gene over all other colors!
The next allele (B) determines if the rabbit will be be Black or Brown based.
Examples below:
The (C) allele determines if the rabbit will have yellow on its hair shaft.
The (D) allele determines if the rabbit will be dense (DD, Dd or D are all dense) or dilute (dd)
The (E) allele determines how much under pigment is put into the rabbits coat.
A is for agouti, which means it determines how many colors are on the hair shaft, it is named agouti because the actual color agouti has the most colors in the hair shaft out of all the colors. Ok, so now I am going to show you the actual genotype of a chestnut! This is not hypothesis any more!
If you click on the genotype it will take you to a picture of the rabbits color!
So a chestnut rabbit has all capitals, it has a dominate Agouti gene (A), Brown gene (B), Yellow Pigment gene (C), Dilute gene (D) and Extension of color gene (E). There are many other colors of rabbits that have that capital A as the first letter in the sequence, this means that the rabbit will have more than one ring of color on the hair shaft, and/or the agouti markings (which I will talk about in a second). Also the chestnut rabbits have what we call agouti markings. These markings are white/orange around nose, white collar around the jaws, orange triangle on neck, white belly, white under side including belly and tail, and white around eyes with white inside ears.
But there is another kind of gene that you will see in the A's spot, it looks like this: a(t) or a(t)a or a(t)a(t). What in the world do those genes represent!? Rabbits with these kind of a(t) genes means that the rabbit will keep all the agouti markings (white/orange around nose, white collar around the jaws, orange triangle on neck, white belly, white under side including belly and tail, and white around eyes with white inside ears.) But not have the bands in its hair shaft, it will be a solid color.
Examples:
Just to reiterate, if the rabbits first allele starts with and A, AA or Aa it is going to most likely have bands of color in its fur. Its also going to have white/orange around nose, white collar around the jaws, orange triangle on neck, white belly, white under side including belly and tail, and white around eyes with white inside ears.
If the rabbits first allele starts with a a(t), a(t)a(t), or a(t)a, its going to have a solid colored hair shaft, with white/orange around nose, white collar around the jaws, orange triangle on neck, white belly, white under side including belly and tail, and white around eyes with white inside ears.
Now for the B allele, this is probably the easiest one folks, so can stop holding you breath and relax a bit now. So for this allele its basically determines the rabbits color base. B or BB means the rabbit is black or blue based, bb or b means the rabbit is brown (chocolate) or lilac based.
Examples of Black or Blue based:
Examples of Chocolate or Lilac based:
There are also pictures of black and chocolate based colors above when I first introduced you to the B allele.
There is a great deal to learn about the C allele and its somewhat complex. The C allele is the most dominate type of letter that can be in this allele, it calls for the most wild/natural expression of color in rabbits, in other words if you see a C you know that the gene in this allele is going to be dominate. Its basically the allele fully expressed, it causes that rabbits natural under pigment to be fully expressed. It causes the banding (on the hair shaft) of agoutis and opals.
Example:
cchd is the next most responsible for striping the under pigment for the hair shaft. It strips the rabbits coat of most all the under pigment leaving only silver/white/black instead.
Its what turns an opal:
To Squirrel:
It also turns Chestnut:
Into Chinchilla:
cchl is the next most common gene in the C allele, it strips the hair shaft of its color a little less. Not turning it black but turning it slightly yellow/brown at the tips.
It turns Tort:
To Sable Point:
See how the tort and the sable point both have she same smutted markings on ears, nose legs etc... the Sable point has just had the yellow pigment removed from it!!
The next allele that you will find in the C spot is 'cc' and this one is VERY simple if you see a 'c' next to a 'c'= (cc) you KNOW the rabbit is going to be REW (red eyed white)!
The next letter we are going to be exploring is D for dilute. Capital 'D' is the wild and most dominant expression you will see in this allele. It makes the coat "Dense" and when you see 'dd' it makes the rabbits coat "Dilute". Rabbits that have a gene that looks like 'Dd' is DENSE BUT they carry one DILUTE gene hiding behind the big 'D', thus their color is NOT dilute but they carry dilute so they can produce dilute babies.
DD=Dense
D=Dense
Dd=Dense (carrying dilute)
dd=Dilute
Each rabbit color has its dilute counter part, i.e what the rabbit's color would be if it was dilute.
Also remember that if a rabbit is dilute they will have blue/gray eyes, if a rabbit is dense they will have brown eyes. (Remember if you see an orange genotype you can click on it to see a picture of what the rabbit looks like!)
DD or Dd - Dense | dd- Dilute |
Black- aaB_C_D_E_ | Blue - aa B_ C_ dd E_ |
Black Tort - aaB_C_D_ee | Blue Tort- aa B_ C_ dd ee |
Chestnut- A_B_C_D_E_ | Opal- A_ B_ C_ dd E_ |
We are comming down the home stretch here! Only one more allele to go!
The E allele cam be broken down quite simply, 'E' is dominate 'ee' or 'e' is recessive. If you see and 'E' the rabbit is going to have dark under pigment all the way down the hair shaft, like Black: aaB_C_D_E_. If you see a 'ee' or 'e' the rabbit will have a light color to its coat and under pigment, like Black Tort: aaB_C_D_ee. Lets look at another chart that shows on one side the rabbits color with the dominate gene and then that exact color with just and ee or e instead!
E or FULL-EXTENSION | ee/e or NON-EXTENSION |
Siamese Sable- aa B_ c(chl)_ D_ E_ | Sable Point- aaB_c(chl)_D_ee |
Chinchilla- A_B_c(chd)_D_E_ | Pearl- Aa_B_c(chl)_D_ee |
Thats the end of our genetics course! Hope you can learn and enjoy from it!
-J.C.V Rabbitry
As I read through this document, I thought to myself, what an excellent writer, but also, very understandable and insightful! Excellent job! I actually personally know this writer and get the honor of being her best friend, and I can personally say that if you ask a question you will receive a clear and insightful answer. kind and respectful and most honest in all their doings, I would give JCV my highest recommendations. Again, Thank you for your most clear and thorough explanation on genetics of rabbit color. God is so amazing to create such detailed design! L.H. Lukezech