[Jacob-list] Moorit X Lilac

[Dan Carpenter]

The statement "lilac is recessive to not lilac" is correct--at least when
talking about lilac in a specific color sense.  (If by lilac one means
"something other than black," then possibly it's still true.)

The traditional lilac (common lilac??? real lilac??? regular lilac???) is
caused by a gene that makes melanocytes clump in the wool.  This is similar
to the action of the dilute locus (D) in other mammals, so I am assuming
that it is the D locus in sheep too.

-Dan

PS.  for those of you who don't take assertions lying down (and good for
you), I explained by evidence and rational for this dilute locus statement
at the 2009 JSBA AGM.  DVDs of the 2009 AGM sessions are available.



-----Original Message-----
From: jacob-list-bounces at jacobsheep.com
[mailto:jacob-list-bounces at jacobsheep.com] On Behalf Of Neal and Louise
Grose
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2010 6:20 AM
To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Moorit X Lilac

The key here is that you have a Lilac carrier Jacob on both sides of the 
pedigree in the lilac crossbred lamb. I remember from somewhere that the 
black in Black Welsh Mountain comes from crosses to Jacob in days gone by.

To clarify what I posted earlier a little: When we say that "lilac is a 
simple recessive to black", we are implying that lilac is only expressed in 
absence of a black allele. In a similar way, those of us who are blue eyed 
are defective in that we do not have at least one functioning allele to 
produce melanin in our irises. In sheep, the hierarchy of dominance one the 
black-white gene is probably something like:
Jacob black > white > normal black > silver > moorit .

I was trying to answer where lilac falls in this. The answer seems to be 
that it doesn't. Lilac probably works on some other gene, one that modifies 
black. In other words, instead of "not black", "lilac" is simple recessive 
to "not lilac".

Cool, huh?
Neal Grose


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shannon Phifer" <kenleighacres at yahoo.com>
To: <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2010 12:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Moorit X Lilac


'As a result, we now have what appears to be the only lilac crossbred that I

have ever seen.' Neal

Interesting discussion! My sister bought a few sheep from us a couple years 
ago (for personal meat lambs) and she had a lilac/white jacob looking 
crossbred this year. The sire was a lilac jacob and the dam was a jacob x 
bfl. The dam was a typical looking jacob cross - black with a white spot on 
her head. We were both shocked! I posted a picture of him on my blog - 
http://kenleighacres.wordpress.com/

Shannon Phifer
Kenleigh Acres Farm
www.kenleigh-acres.com
That'll Do Photography
www.thatlldo.photoreflect.com
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