Colorful question!!!!!
 

It is in the history of the Yorkshire Terrier that several other breeds were bred together to get the Yorkie creating a "Colorful" gene pool. My question is that if these genes are in the lines, why is the formula for what you get if you breed a colorful gene carrier to a colorful gene carrier that only some of the offspring are carriers? If it is in the background why wouldn't all be either parti or carriers?

I've always wondered why labradors (for instance) aren't spotty or stripey or somehow multi-coloured if their mum's a lemon lab and their dad's a black lab?! Sally + Harry x

i only have high school biology to go on here (s someone can correct me if im wrong), but i think it has to do with wwhich genes were dominat or carriers. if, for instance in humans, two people have the recessive gene for, say, albinosm, their babies COULD get it. this is because each parent contributes 2 "genes"= 4 altogether. a human only needs 2, so there are different combinations that could occure.. we did this experiment with rabbit colouring in high school :?

Harrysmum, i would think its because they don't carry the piebald gene, but don;t know for sure.

Mama ziggy, thanks for that info, but if those "colorful genes" are in yorkies from way, way back to the beginning, wouldn't all carry?

Anyway still looking for someone to answer my original question with a little history and genetics of the yorkie.

Sorry for all the mistakes, blame it on my broken wrist that is not healing correctly.

Anybody?

I am going to try and state this in simple terms, it is more complicated.

Humans have 23 PAIRS of chromosomes. When the egg (or the sperm) , the pairs split into 2, so the egg (or sperm) contains only 23 chromosomes. When they combine in fertilization, then the result is 23 PAIRS again.

How the genes express themselves determine the result that you can see in the offspring. Some genes are dominant, some are recessive. Let's just say, for grins, that the gene for brown eyes is dominant and the gene for blue eyes is recessive. (It is really more complicated than this, I believe there is more than one gene that determines eye color).

If the offspring gets the brown "B" (dominant) gene from both parents, then it will have brown eyes.

If the offspring gets the "b" blue (recessive) gene from both parents, then it will have blue eyes.

What happens if the offspring gets one of each? Since the "B" brown is dominant, the offsprings eyes will be brown, because that gene is dominant over the "b" blue (recessive). Even though the offspring has brown eyes, it will be a carrier of the "b" blue gene and can pass on that gene (or the dominant "B") to it's own children. Depending on what gene that offspring gets from the other parent, the brown-eyed person can end up with a blue-eyed child.

The Punnett Square illustrates the probability of certain offspring occurring. Basic Principles of Genetics: Probability of Inheritance

THANKS OBJ! That was a great explanation.