Dear Editor,
Rattitude published in August some corrections I felt were needed,
to the genetics articles, in Rattitude 23 & 24.
There are also corrections needed for later parts.
Rattitude 26, page 8, the verbal descriptions, with the genetic descriptions are best ignored, A few are correct, others are terms
which are not usually used, or for which there are alternatives, and
some are completely wrong.
A couple of examples should suffice: aa dd mm “blue mink” is
usually known as mink blue ( it is a blue colour)
and is called by some lavender. None of these terms is standard,
aa bb dd MM is not chocolate mink ( or mink of any kind), as it is MM.
The ' coffee' is referred to as “ chocolate mink” but is thought to be carrying ruby eye
( i.e is Rr ).
Rattitude 26, Pages 7 & 8, the recessive characteristic a , is better known
as non agouti. All the self colours( apart from albino ) are aa
Rattitude 27, Page 7 middle, should be “On the hooded locus H ... ... ,
there can be a number of alleles which control the patterning”.
The self gene H is on the H locus, and HH rats are not patterned. The hooded gene h is on the H locus and hh gives hooded.
Rattitude 27, Page 7 bottom, The pearl gene Pe ( not PE ), is indeed homozygous lethal, but Pe Pe ratlets are not born dying, this is not my experience, and I checked with Veronica Simmons, a notable breeder of pearls for some fifteen years, who has not observed any dying new-borns
from pearl x pearl matings, but has had the occasional still-born pearl
which might( or might not ) have been Pe Pe
Sheila Sowter
