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The genetics of colour in fat-tailed sheep: a review

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Abstract

Fat-tailed sheep come in various colours—most are either brown (tan) or black. In some, most of the body is white with the tan or black colour restricted to the front portion of the body or to just around the eyes, muzzle and parts of the legs. The Karakul breed is important for the production of lamb skins of various colours for the fashion industry. As well as the black and tan colours there are Karakuls bred for grey or roan shades, a white colour or one of the numerous Sur shades. In the Sur shades, the base of the birthcoat fibre is one of a number of dark shades and the tip a lighter or white shade. All these colours and many others are the result of the interaction of various genes that determine the specifics of the coat colour of the sheep. A number of sets of nomenclature and symbols have been used to represent the various loci and their alleles that are involved. In the 1980s and 1990s, a standardised set, based closely on those of the mouse and other species was developed. Using this as the framework, the alleles of the Extension, Agouti, Brown, Spotting, Pigmented Head and Roan loci are described using fat-tailed sheep (mainly Damara, Karakul and Persian) as examples. Further discussion includes other types of “white markings,” the Ticking locus and the Sur loci.

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Acknowledgements

On two trips to Southern Africa, Dawie du Toit and Trudel Andrag were the perfect hosts. As well as seeing Dawie’s Damaras at Prieska, we visited other Damara flocks: those of Anneliese and Hinrich Schneider-Waterberg, Jacobus Roux (Figs. 5c and 7e) and Frank Blumenthal (Roy Blumenthal, Fig. 2a), the Karakul flocks of Hottie and Santa Vlok (Figs. 4a–c and 6b), Gellap-Ost Research Station (Johan van der Merwe), Malcolm and Louisa Campbell (Fig. 6c) and Andre Campbell and the various different flocks of Deon Volk (Figs. 1h, 2b–f and 3d). The three Dorper photos were taken at the exPointer agricultural show in Brazil. The black and tan Damara ewe (Fig. 1d) belonged to Stoffel van Niekerk. The other 19 Damara photos are all of Dawie’s sheep. I would like to thank all of these farmers for all their hospitality and help. Dawie took 11 of the photos (Figs. 1b–e, g, and i, 2a, 3f and 5a, b and e)—I would like to thank him for allowing me to use them. I would like to thank Luis Iñiguez and Joaquin Mueller for suggesting I use a photo from their book (Fig. 8a). The two sur pelts (Fig. 8b, c) belonged to Raimar von Hase (Namibia). Finally, I visited Prof J.A. Nel twice on my last visit, and I would like to thank him for such stimulating discussions on the genetics of coat colour and also for obtaining the coffee-brown Karakul photo (Fig. 6a) from the Gellap-Ost Research Station.

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    Roger S. Lundie

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Lundie, R.S. The genetics of colour in fat-tailed sheep: a review. Trop Anim Health Prod 43, 1245–1265 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-011-9850-0

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