Other people have already answered the other parts of this post, wrt
gerbils carrying undesirable traits not necessarily being related to each
other, etc.
At 07:20 PM 1/25/00 -0500, Ann-Marie L. Roberts wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Rebecca Allbritton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>>
>> As someone preparing to work on creating a line of inbred gerbils (20
>> generations of brother-sister matings, so that the genes are very
>uniform),
>> and who also wants to play with gerbil colors, I would like the stock I
>> work with to be as healthy and "well bred" as possible. I hope that
>> breeders I've gotten animals from have chosen their best stock to work
>> with, but unfortunately I can't be sure of that, so I have to create my
>own.
>>
>
>Now wait a minute, you tell me that I'm wrong for letting this kinked tail
>male breed with an unrelated female, but you breed 20 generations of
>brother-sister matings?? If I understand that correctly, you breed a brother
>to a sister, then take a male and female from their litter and let them
>breed, and you do this 20 times? Now when is inbreeding to much?? I thought
>only four or five generations should be allowed. (I don't even do that.)
All the strains of mice that are worked with in laboratory settings are
inbred, & the (scientific) definition of inbred is 20 generations of
brother-sister matings. This is done so that results of tests & experiments
are truly the result of the test, and not the result of individual
differences.
I am NOT one of the people interested in inducing neurological problems
into gerbils to study them so that we can understand those problems better
in humans (there are 331 pages of research studies with the key word
gerbil in them in the PubMed database, and very few of them are for gerbil
color or handedness.)
I am a genetics student working under the supervision of one of the most
famous mammal pigment experts in the world, Dr M Lynn Lamoreux. She's going
to Japan in October because they have asked her to look at the data they
have collected that shows that fish may be using tyrosinase as a precursor
to melanin. Previously, it was thought that fish did not use melanin as a
pigment. Melanin is the basis of all mammal pigments.
I am presently working on the end of a project involving all of the known
alleles at a particular locus and their phenotypes in the mouse with a
group of students in her lab. I am interested in gerbils, especially the so
called "schimmel" color, as I have mentioned in previous postings to the
list. I am interested in it from a Mendelian standpoint and from a
biochemical standpoint. I am also interested in what happens with the
melanin in the skin of "grey" horses, and how that differs from and is
similar to schimmel gerbils. What I am hoping to get grant money for will
NOT involve sacrificing animals (aka killing them) to serve the cause of
science, but will require small skin samples to look at the structure, and
some DNA (usually 1mm cube of skin is enough, although I have a friend in
plants who can sequence DNA with a smaller sample than that.)
That is why I need an inbred strain, especially since schimmel masks
several other coat color genes. Good thing I'm going to be in school a
looong time. =)
All the best,
Rebecca...
who should be studying, but is probably going to take a nap instead =)
