Translate

Saturday 20 June 2015

The Proof is in the Pussy 2 - Finding a New Most Recessive Trait

I was going to talk about something else for our second issue but I had a bit of an interesting discovery this week: finding out that Exotic Journey is the new most recessive eye. I was going to talk about finding a "new most recessive" trait at a later date, but we might as well cover it now.

Finding a "new most recessive" trait can be difficult! We often breed our starter cats with the most recessive things we have because it helps to draw out more dominant traits. However, when you breed a starter with a cat with a most recessive trait and get that same trait back, is it because your cat is hiding that trait, or is it hiding something new and more recessive? I had this issue when I bred a starter with a Dry Olive eyed kitty and got a kitten with Dry Olive eyes back. Was the starter hiding Dry Olive, or was it hiding something that was more recessive to Dry Olive that we didn't know about? It turned out that the starter was hiding Exotic Journey, a newer eye discovered in May but not yet on the Saga Charts. Here's how I found it in the starter. :)

Exotic Journey pedigree:
Exotic Journey vs. Dry Olive Pedigree
Click to open in a new window.


If you look at the above pedigree, you'll see the grand-dad on both sides is the same Easter Starter kitty, Tija.

The starter kitty Tija was bred with an Odyssey Bellini kitty first, and they passed Odyssey Bellini, so I figured that the resulting kitten, Nugget, was hiding Tija's hidden, which was unknown to me at the time. It was also possible that the Ody Bellini mom (Patience) was hiding something more recessive than Ody Bellini (in fact, she could have been hiding Exotic Journey! I'll talk about that later.) In that case, the starter's hidden could have gone up against the more recessive eye behind the Ody Bellini, making the same Ody Bellini kitten, except that this kitten's shown would be the starter's hidden, and the kitten's hidden would be the partner's hidden. In order to find out, I had to breed Tija with a more recessive eye and see if it would draw out Ody Bellini, or something else.

I then bred Tija with a Dry Olive kitty and got Dry Olive on Rufford. At this point I knew Tija was hiding at least Dry Olive, and perhaps something more recessive. If the latter, then I knew Rufford was hiding that more recessive eye, also. Now I also knew that Nugget got her shown eye from her mom's shown Ody Bellini and her hidden from Tija - if Tija was hiding Dry Olive or more recessive, then Nugget's Ody Bellini must have come from her mom. This also meant Nugget was also hiding Tija's hidden.

Was Tija just hiding Dry Olive, or something new and more recessive?? There are a couple of ways to find out - back breed Nugget to Tija or breed Nugget and Rufford together.

Which option would be better? Let's look at the possible outcomes of each:

A. Breeding Nugget to Tija:
  • Nugget Ody Bellini + Tija Genesis Meadow = Genesis Meadow (Ody Bellini)
  • Nugget Ody Bellini + Tija hidden = Ody Bellini (Tija hidden)
  • Nugget/Tija hidden + Tija Genesis Meadow = Genesis Meadow (Tija hidden)
  • Nugget/Tija hidden + Tija hidden = Tija hidden (Tija hidden)
Breeding Nugget and Tija gives a 25% chance of getting that hidden eye out, but 50% of the kittens will show Genesis Meadow. Of those Genesis Meadow kittens, I'd have no way of knowing which ones hid Ody Bellini and which ones hid Tija's hidden eye. There's also a 25% chance of getting an Ody Bellini kitten hiding Tija's hidden. This cat could also be used to breed out that hidden eye.

B. Breeding Nugget to Rufford:
  • Nugget Ody Bellini + Rufford Dry Olive = Ody Bellini (Dry Olive)
  • Nugget Ody Bellini + Rufford/Tija hidden = Ody Bellini (Tija hidden)
  • Nugget/Tija hidden + Rufford Dry Olive = Dry Olive (Tija hidden)
  • Nugget/Tija hidden + Rufford/Tija hidden = Tija hidden (Tija hidden)
Breeding Nugget to Rufford also gives a 25% chance of getting that hidden eye. We also have a 50% chance of getting Ody Bellini, and of those, we wouldn't know which hid Dry Olive and which hid Tija's hidden eye. There's also a 25% chance of getting a Dry Olive kitty which hides Tija's hidden eye.

The odds are the same but I usually go with option B because:
  • the "duds" that result in option B are prettier cats showing a nice eye and could be used for other things, or sold
  • option B keeps Tija available for further breeding

    However, there's a big disadvantage:
  • if option B keeps giving Dry Olive kittens, is it because Tija is hiding Dry Olive or just because my luck is terrible and I'm not making the 25% chance of getting the hidden out (I have a history of such horrible luck!) I could breed these 2 cats forever and never really know!
  • at least with option A if I get a bunch of Ody Bellini cats, I know they're all hiding Tija's hidden eye. I could breed those together and get the hidden eye that way, and there would be absolutely no doubt that this was Tija's hidden eye. If they give Dry Olive, Tija is hiding Dry Olive. If they give something else, that's Tija's hidden eye.

    I decided to go with option B for a while, and if that didn't produce results in a few breedings, I would back breed Nugget with Tija. I still don't know Tija's hidden tail or whisker shape so I want to breed Tija with other cats for a while and draw those out.

    So we know what happened: I bred Nugget and Rufford together and out came the Exotic Journey! This eye must be recessive to Dry Olive because it was hiding behind Rufford's shown Dry Olive eye. Recall the four options that could have resulted:

    a. Nugget's shown Ody Bellini + Rufford's shown Dry Olive: This gives us a kitten showing Odyssey Bellini and hiding Dry Olive. This is not what I got.

    b. Nugget's shown Ody Bellini + Rufford's hidden eye: This gives us a kitten showing Odyssey Bellini and hiding Tija's/Rufford's hidden eye. This is also not what I got.

    Note that if you get a kitten from a. or b. you won't be able to tell which it is: Ody Bellini hiding Dry Olive or Ody Bellini hiding Tija's hidden? You'd have to breed it to find out.

    c. Nugget's hidden eye + Rufford's Dry Olive: This gives us a kitten showing the more dominant eye of the two. Both Nugget and Rufford are hiding the same eye. If that hidden eye + Dry Olive gave us Dry Olive, that would make sense. If that hidden eye + Dry Olive gave us the hidden eye, that would make no sense: how could the hidden eye of Nugget be dominant to Dry Olive if Rufford is also hiding that same eye behind his Dry Olive? Therefore, this would produce a Dry Olive kitten, which is not what I got. Note to Recall: A kitten with Nugget's shown eye is hiding Tija's hidden eye!

    d. Nugget's hidden eye + Rufford's hidden eye: This would give us a kitten showing the more dominant of the two eyes. I know Nugget and Rufford are both hiding Tija's hidden, but I figured it was just Dry Olive. If that was the case, then this would produce a kitten showing Dry Olive. But that's not what I got: I got Exotic Journey. There's only one place for that Exotic Journey eye to have come from: from Nugget's and Rufford's hidden eye, which is also Tija's hidden eye!

    So option D is the only option that would produce the Exotic Journey kitten. This therefore proves:
    Exotic Journey is Tija's hidden eye, therefore:
    Rufford hides Exotic Journey, making Exotic Journey recessive to Dry Olive, therefore:
    Exotic Journey is the new most recessive eye.

    [tiny kitty]Note About New Most Recessive Traits:
    Because they have such a huge effect on pricing and breeding decisions, we require two solid, independent proofs of any "new most recessive" trait. This is only the first proof. We need a second proof from a different breeder (even the SagaKitty team members are not exempt from the rules! :D )
    If you have any further proof that Exotic Journey is recessive to Dry Olive, please pass them on to SagaKitty Resident, or SagaKittySL@gmail.com :)

    Another Possibility

    It's also possible, but extremely unlikely, that the cats bred to Tija had been hiding Exotic Journey or something more recessive - traits that seem "new" aren't necessarily from the latest release: they could have been hiding undiscovered for a while, as was the case with the Ocicat Chocolate back in 2011 (it was found in the Halloween kitties but turned out to be from a release much earlier in the year and had been hanging around hidden in my July starter cats all that time - I told you I had horrible luck! ;) ) So when we're evaluating proofs for brand new traits that we don't have information for, we always take into account, "What if the starter's PARTNER was hiding this new trait?"

    What if Rufford's mom hid Exotic Journey (or something more recessive we don't know about, yet)?
    Then Exotic Journey would have to be recessive to Dry Olive, because Rufford's mom is showing Dry Olive. We'd end up with the same proof that Exotic Journey is recessive to Dry Olive.
    What would that say about Tija? Tija could be hiding Dry Olive, Exotic Journey, or something new and more recessive that we don't even know about, yet.

    What if Nugget's mom hid Exotic Journey (or something recessive to Ody Bellini, including something recessive to Exotic Journey that we don't know about, yet)?

    Assuming we didn't know how dominant/recessive Exotic Journey is, that would mean that it's at least recessive to Ody Bellini (remember Nugget's mom shows Ody Bellini). Therefore, Nugget would have to be:
    1. Mom's shown Ody Bellini + Tija's hidden = Ody Bellini, meaning Tija is hiding Ody Bellini or more recessive.
    2. Mom's hidden + Tija's hidden = Ody Bellini, meaning Tija is hiding Ody Bellini and Nugget's mom (and Nugget) is hiding something more recessive, which could be anything from Grotto to Dry Olive, or Exotic Journey, or something more recessive that we don't know about, yet.

    If #1, then we're back at the beginning: Rufford proves that Tija is hiding Dry Olive or more recessive, therefore Nugget is also hiding Dry Olive or more recessive. Breeding Nugget and Rufford gives us a 25% chance to find out what this hidden eye is. And that's what I did, and I got Exotic Journey. So we end up with the same proof.
    What would this say about Tija? That Tija is hiding Dry Olive, Exotic Journey, or something more recessive to Exotic Journey that we don't even know about, yet. I'm going on the more likely assumption that Tija is hiding Exotic Journey, but to be sure, I'm breeding out all of his offspring that I know are hiding his hidden eye.

    If #2
    , then Rufford would not make any sense: how could a Dry Olive cat + a starter hiding Ody Bellini produce a Dry Olive kitten like Rufford? That's impossible, so this can't be the case.

    What if BOTH Nugget's mom and Rufford's mom are hiding Exotic Journey, or something more recessive that we don't know about, yet? Very unlikely, but is it possible? We can't assume anything :P so let's examin this possibility:

    If both Nugget's mom (Patience) and Rufford's Mom (Junie) are hiding Exotic Journey or something more recessive, this means that:

    Rufford would be
    a. Dry Olive (from Tija's hidden) hiding Exotic Journey or something more recessive from mom
    or
    b. Dry Olive (from mom's shown) hiding Dry Olive or something more recessive from Tija

    Nugget would be
    c. Ody Bellini (from mom's shown) hiding something more recessive from Tija
    or
    d. Ody Bellini (Tija's hidden) and hiding Exotic Journey or something more recessive from mom

    This gives us combinations that make no sense and are therefore impossible:

    a + d is not a valid combination: Nugget can't be showing Ody Bellini from Tija if Rufford is showing Dry Olive from Tija - that would mean that Tija is hiding both Ody Bellini and Dry Olive, which is impossible.

    b + d is not a valid combination: if d is true, then Tija is hiding Ody Bellini, which makes Rufford impossible - he can't be Dry Olive from mom hiding Ody Bellini from Tija.

    a + c is not a valid combination: if a is true, then Nugget is Ody Bellini (mom's shown) hiding Dry Olive (a says that Rufford shows Tija's hidden Dry Olive). This leads to no valid combinations that would give an Exotic Journey eye:
    • Nugget's Ody Bellini + Rufford's Dry Olive would give Ody Bellini
    • Nugget's Ody Bellini + Rufford's hidden Exotic Journey+ would give Ody Bellini
    • Nugget's hidden Dry Olive + Rufford's Dry Olive would give Dry Olive
    • Nugget's hidden Dry Olive + Rufford's hidden Exotic Journey+ would give Dry Olive
    None of these gives the Exotic Journey kitten we received from Nugget and Rufford

    This leaves us with the combination of b + c
    Rufford: Dry Olive (from mom) hiding Tija's hidden
    Nugget: Ody Bellini (from mom) hiding Tija's hidden
    This is what we started with and we used this to prove that Tija is hiding Exotic Journey and that Exotic Journey is recessive to Dry Olive.

    That's it for this issue! Feel free to ask questions or make comments and suggestions. Until next time, may all your kitty dreams come true!