The agouti gene is present in most mammals including people!

How many people knew? Because I surely did not!

I've started my journey into genetics and understanding - at least on a basic level!

Ceara, do you have a link to the post on this? I had no idea

You been talking with Debbie? I know she's been doing a lot of color genetics research.

I knew, but only because I did a lot of my undergraduate research on rodent color genetics.
Yeah I'm kind of a science dork...

I would love to do research on husky color genetics! It's awesome you found a "mentor" to help you learn about it. You'll be our resident genetics expert in no time!

Jennifer - I don't have a link to anything saying specifically stating "humans have the agouti gene" - but it comes from a scientist (and Melissa backed it up lol)

Sara - I have been talking with Debbie! I knew she was doing the research and I was talking with her about dogs - it just kind of popped up. Have you talked with her at all?

Melissa - I was given an article about the yellow and brown mice sisters to read. It was fascinating. The entirety of the way the genetics work fascinates me at a very basic level (and only because I'm an idiot and once you start using big fancy words I get confused easily lol). There is a ton of stuff that goes into the agouti gene.

For those that have asked me to post what I've learned - it's going to take awhile until I have learned much, much more about it and I have a much better grasp/understanding and can sort through it with relative ease. lol

Ceara,
can you change the name of the post to reference the agouti gene or the research/your learning so you can pop in and update it and it makes it more search friendly. i know i like learning little tidbits here and there im not a big science geek, and i dont go out finding things to learn. but i will read stuff people post.

It has been done! I in truth don't know how much/often I'll be updating in the near future until I really have a decent understanding.

But really I can say - it is nowhere near as simple as it was made out to be.

This is really interesting! I'll for sure keep up with this thread and will be checking for updates. What made you decide to start looking into this? Agouti has been very interesting to me the last few months.

I looked up a bit on the Husky Colors website and found out that the deep red of Chili's coat means there's an agouti in his gene pool - I found that fascinating!!

Hayden_69 wrote:

This is really interesting! I'll for sure keep up with this thread and will be checking for updates. What made you decide to start looking into this? Agouti has been very interesting to me the last few months.

The Siberian color lists are far from "descriptive" (lack of a better word) and there is often times a lot of confusion when it comes to colors and describing what a possible color could be. Even the SHCA color description has so many different ways it could be interpreted. The colors all fascinate me so I decided that I would like to have at least a basic understanding of them and what goes into them.

The agouti I've been fascinated with for awhile and never had the opportunity to discuss it in depth with a scientist and now that the opportunity has presented itself I plan to take advantage of it!

hollywoodhuskies wrote:

I looked up a bit on the Husky Colors website and found out that the deep red of Chili's coat means there's an agouti in his gene pool - I found that fascinating!!

I didn't get into the reds - but maybe this will help

This is a quote from my conversation earlier:

Quote :

Personally I think the written SHCA color description only describes a small portion of genetic agoutis. Even throwing out black/whites and potentially gray/whites, there can be a huge variation of shading in litters by parents with classic agouti colors.

This part is in reference to my asking the question "So any number of gray/whites could really be agouti"

Quote :

Could be, there needs to more testing. One of the leading canine genetics researchers seems to think they are though

That's fascinating! I will look forward to updates as you learn more

I have been getting into the color genetics with my horses, and would be really interested in seeing how they work in dogs as well. In horses, the agouti gene can be dominate wich causes the extension gene to restrict black marks to the legs and other specific parts of the body. Agouti acting as the reseccice gene along with the extension causes the horse to be all black. the other ways that the agouti gene can present itsself causes the browns, bays, and is present in the reds. Interesting to know that it presents itself in reds in dogs as well.

https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsiberianhuskyeducation.webs.com%2FSiberian%2520Coat%2520ColorXML4.mht&h=dAQEcEWLSAQF2XRmHTfI9_5AxcU4Q65Qajvjlvfa_38hnhQ&enc=AZPvgx4Mzksn30V9aZBXA-pk4yOaETV0F8CGI97_FjXiHiSnfO97gShsxsGUhF7oZyoQz1MACqK0xnmIQm1HwOzJPD9-wK6mrhdejsnNQtecIQ

(hopefully that works)
Written by a friend - I think you guys will find the read very interesting.

Niraya wrote:

https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsiberianhuskyeducation.webs.com%2FSiberian%2520Coat%2520ColorXML4.mht&h=dAQEcEWLSAQF2XRmHTfI9_5AxcU4Q65Qajvjlvfa_38hnhQ&enc=AZPvgx4Mzksn30V9aZBXA-pk4yOaETV0F8CGI97_FjXiHiSnfO97gShsxsGUhF7oZyoQz1MACqK0xnmIQm1HwOzJPD9-wK6mrhdejsnNQtecIQ

(hopefully that works)
Written by a friend - I think you guys will find the read very interesting.

I love this article because it has a puppy pic of Kitty and about five of Kitty's relatives pictured in it! Kitty's breeder sent me this article a while back. Its very interesting and informative.