[Jacob-list] Dominant black and recessive lilac

[Jacobflock at aol.com]

Melody asks "what if the Jacob in question was a lilac?  Are these not 
considered "true" Jacobs? Do lilac Jacobs have the dominant black gene in 
there somewhere?"

I am not a geneticist and many people have far more time committed to the 
Jacob than I and better able to offer insights. I too have questions. 

The breed standards in North America say something like "and there are 
lilacs" and there it rests.  There are about nine or so color genes; maybe 
five or six are important to the Jacob.  The lilac is frowned on in the UK 
and handspinners die for it here. I personally approach the lilac like the 
greying gene...it exists, it is recessive but don't let it get out of 
control.  The lilac is a Jacob until it is proved it is not a Jacob.

You mentioned the dark brown Shetland; probably one of the more colorful 
sheep that has existed but like the Jacob is rare.  The cross of a Jacob over 
the Shetland would be a color genetics nightmare because of the Shetland's 
range of color from black to white and yellow and red to grey and on top of 
the rnge of colors, the various Shetland patterns vs. the simple white 
piebald Jacob.  

There is nothing incompatible with a dominant balck and recessive lilac on 
its face, I think this is rather widely known.  Evidence to determine the 
nature of lilac may require answering  the biochemical question: is the lilac 
a eumelanin (black) or phaenomelanin (red-yellow) fiber.   Then the question 
may be that of accurately distinguishing between a lilac and a greying 
expression and the interaction of the black, lilac and greying alleles.  

Questions without answers are good questions, questioning answers are better 
questions.  Questioning what we think we see is the best question of all 
because we question our own senses.

On tonight's news they featured a new born giraffe at the Fort Worth zoo and 
I was suddenly struck by how much the giraffe, Jacob sheep and we have in 
common...we all look different from the shoulders to the base of our skull, 
but we all have seven vertebrae.  What we think we see ( a few or lottta neck 
bones) and and what's really there (we all have seven)... Good night. Fred 
Horak