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Essential
Genetics for the Terrified
by Chris Rutt
Introduction
I travel around the UK quite
a lot giving illustrated talks about Lovebirds, and over the years have
often been asked to go into detail on the colour expectations of
various pairings. It is certainly much easier to plan our breeding
program if we have a basic understanding of genetics.
However, many fanciers admit
to having no prior knowledge of the subject and though many members are
very interested, rarely does time permit more than the most superficial
answer to specific questions, and some of these members have asked me
to produce some help for them. I have therefore prepared a short series
of articles on the subject which I hope will help members come to terms
with the subject. Do not be scared of it. Anyone who is prepared to
read the articles should be able to understand them. I will take
everything in short stages, and all long words will be thoroughly
explained when they first occur, and if space permits, these
explanations will be repeated occasionally through the series.
Some fundamental questions and answers first:
Q. What is genetics?
A. The study of how characteristics found in parents are passed on to
later generations.
Q. How will understanding
genetics help me?
A. It will help you to produce particular mutations in the fewest
possible pairings, and to understand why two identical birds can
produce a large variety of colours in their chicks and therefore
understand the make up of the parents, and perhaps deduce their
pedigree.
Q. Why are such long words
used?
A. To save space! A so called "scientific" word (such as "genetics"),
like any other, has a definition in a dictionary which may be a
sentence or more in length. Providing all users agree to the
definition, use of this initially unfamiliar word saves a great deal of
time when the particular concept often comes up in a particular
circumstance. Don't fret about their pronunciation - they sound like
they look.
Q. How accurate is the
science of genetics?
A. For the purposes of the average bird breeder, very accurate IF WE
REMEMBER THAT ANY FORECAST OF THE OUTCOME OF A PARTICULAR PAIRING MADE
ASSUMES VERY LARGE NUMBERS OF OFFSPRING, and that there are other
processes at work beyond the BASIC genetics I am attempting to cover in
these articles. If forced to quantify the accuracy, I would say that
given 50 chicks from a particular pair the forecast outcome for any ONE
particular characteristic would be around 90% right, and often more
accurate. Do remember though that we are always dealing with average
probabilities, and frequently with more than one characteristic.
Q. If I still don't
understand after several readings, what can I do?
A. WRITE TO ME, and I
will prepare a follow up article dealing with the problems encountered.
Part1:
A Beginning
All rights reserved
© 1997-2000 Chris Rutt
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