SOME EXAMPLES OF DOMINANT TRAITS, (GENES) AND SYMBOLS
1/ Manx,  symbol M
2/ White Spotting, symbol S
3/ Tabby (Agouti), symbol A
4/ Short Hair, symbol L
5/ Full Coat Colour, symbol C
6/ Melanin Inhibitor (for silver or smoke), symbol I
7/ Dominant White, symbol W
8/Black, symbol B
9/ Coat Colour Density, symbol D
SOME EXAMPLES OF RECESSIVE TRAITS, (GENES) AND SYMBOLS
1/ Dilute Coat Density,  symbol d
2/Chocolate, symbol b
3/Lilac, symbol bd
4/ Long Hair, symbol l
5/ Albino Alleles - Pointing (Siamese), symbol c^s & Burmese, symbol c^b, Blue Eyed White, symbol c^a, Red
     Eyed White, symbol c
6/ Non Tabby ( Non Agouti), symbol a
7/ Devon Rex, symbol re

· Any of these recessive Traits can 'hide' and show up out of the blue. However when you are breeding
 cats, or know some of their history you can often figure out what they are carrying in the way of
 recessive genes.
· If a cat showing any recessive trait is mated, all of their progeny will either show the recessive trait
  or carry a copy of it.
· Two cats showing a recessive trait, when mated to one another cannot produce kittens showing the
  dominant expression of that trait, e.g.. two long haired cats cannot produce a short haired kitten.
· With the dominant allele of any gene at least one parent must show it for any progeny to show it, e.g.. A
 Tabby crossed with a non Tabby may produce Tabbies, however two non Tabbies cannot produce any
 Tabby kittens.

  RED AND DOMINANT WHITE
· These two genes are unusual, in that their presence is able to mask or 'paint over' other colours, this is
  referred to as EPISTASIS.
 Dominant White symbol W
. Because of this paint over effect, every Red or Cream or Pure White cat is actually another colour
  underneath.
. A pure white cat may be any colour or coat pattern under the white, including red and
  cream, pointed, burmese, tonkinese etc.
. Dominant white is totally different from White Spotting. White Spotting is the typical cat with
  anything from a white bib right through to just a few spots of colour on an otherwise white cat.
 Red symbol X^o
. Red cats are Black or Chocolate, Cream are Blue or Lilac. The Red gene does not cover coat pattern,
  e.g..
  pointing, burmese, tonkinese, bicolour, tabby. In other words, the cat actually has the genes for these
  colours but they are unable to be expressed (show).
. Red also affect the Agouti (Tabby) genes, in that it allows the tabby pattern to show even on cats that
  are non tabby.
· The Red gene is sex linked, it only occurs on the X chromosome, not the Y chromosome. Therefore if a
  male cat (XY) receives an X chromosome from his Mother with the Red gene on it, he will be red or
  cream. Because a female has two X chromosomes (XX) they may receive either one or two X
  chromosomes
  containing the Red gene. If they receive one red X, they will be Tortoiseshell, if they receive two red
  X chromosomes they will be red or cream.
. Tortoiseshell males only occur in male cats who have abnormal chromosomes, e.g.. XXY
. See the mating chart below

TABLE OF RED CAT MATINGS

MATING	RED CATS	TORTOISESHELL	NON RED
RED MALE X NON RED FEMALE	NO	YES	MALES ONLY
RED MALE X TORTIE FEMALE	MALES & FEMALES	YES	MALES ONLY
RED MALE X RED FEMALE	ALL	NO	NO
NON RED MALE X TORTIE FEMALE	MALES ONLY	YES	MALES & FEMALES
NON RED MALE X RED FEMALE	MALES ONLY	YES	NO
NON RED MALE X NON RED FEMALE	NO	NO	ALL

WHITE SPOTTING SYMBOL S  non white spotting s
· White Spotting as just mentioned is the gene responsible for your typical bicolour cat.
· The White Spotting gene is dominant.
· This gene has what we call Variable Expression, as you can see from the many varied bicolour patterns
  you see in the cat population, from mere smudges of white, through to all white with smudges of colour
· When a cat has both white spotting genes i.e. SS, they will have a greater proportion of white than
  those with only one of the genes i.e. Ss.
· The White Spotting gene also affects other genes. Tortoiseshell cats with white on their bodies will
  have large patches of colour, as opposed to those without any white where the colours are all
  mixed.
. White Spotting also affect the pointing and burmese genes. Again when there is white on the body of
  the cat, the coloured parts of the body will become almost as dark as the mask and tail.
· TABBY (AGOUTI) SYMBOL  A  non agouti a
. There are three Tabby Alleles, in order from dominant through to recessive these are:
. Ticked Tabby, symbol t^b as seen in abyssinians
. Mackerel, symbol T, striped
. Blotched, symbol t, butterfly blotches.
· All cats have the genes for a tabby coat pattern. Whether they show their tabby markings or not is
  dependent on the presence of the Agouti gene (A) will be Tabby, Non Agouti (aa) will be non Tabby
  or solid colour.
· As mentioned under the red gene, if the red gene is present it allows the tabby pattern to show even in
  a non agouti cat.
· Some high grade smoke cats may also show a ghost tabby pattern, especially while they are
   young.
 . Because Ticked is not completely dominant over Mackerel, many ticked tabbies will still have stripes
   on their tails and legs.
COAT COLOUR
· The alleles for coat colour are represented by B for black or b for chocolate.
. The alleles for coat colour density are represented by D for dark and d for dilute.

ALBINO ALLELES RESPONSIBLE FOR POINTING, Burmese and Tonkinese Coat patterns
. Burmese Also known as Sepia) and Tonkinese ( Also known as Mink) are terms which refer both to a particular breed of cat and to a particular
  coat pattern. Whereas Pointing is used to describe the coat pattern seen in the Siamese, Birman
   etc. Sometimes referred to as Himalayan. Kittens born with these coat pattern, are born white through to a light coffee colour and develop their colours slowly over the first months of life.  The first three photos show Oscar at 2 days coffee coloured kitten in foreground,  then at three weeks, then 10 weeks. The last photo shows Oscar in foreground still growing an adult coat, Monica in background is the same colour but with her adult coat! 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

· The dominant form of this gene is C or full coat colour.
· The Albino Alleles in order from dominant through to recessive are:
· Full Coat Colour,  symbol C
· Pointing, symbol c^s & Burmese, symbol c^b  Because neither of these genes are of 'equal power'
  when a cat has a copy of each the genes share expression these cats are Tonkinese (c^bc^s)
. Blue eyed White symbol c^a
. Red eyed white symbol c
. The pointing and Burmese genes change black to seal, other colours remain unchanged.
· Pointing and Burmese genes are affected by the White Spotting gene (see White Spotting)
SMOKE & SILVER TABBIES
The inhibitor gene is responsible for smoke ans silver tabbies. The gene literally inhibits the formation of colour at the base of the hair. The higher the grade (or expression) of this gene the further up the hair shaft the colour is inhibited. A tabby cat with this gene is referred to as a silver tabby, the most extreme of the expression being seen in the Chichilla coat, these cats are actually very high grade Black Silver Tabbies. A non tabby cat with the same gene will be referred to as a Smoke.
The inhibitor gene in devons can actually change the colour of the cat signifigantly as they move from their juvenile suede coat to their adult coat. When they are sporting their suede coat the kittens or young cats may almost look pointed, with the shortest of their coats being very light, while their face, legs ears and tail are their adult darker colour. The examples above show a Seal Smoke Tonkinese, you can see at ten weeks how light his body colour is, with his adult coat we will excpect him to darken to almost the colour of the adult cats in the last photo.  Colour changes due to Inhibitor gene

TABLE  OF COAT COLOURS - POSSIBLE MATINGS

MATING	BLACK	BLUE	CHOCOLATE	LILAC	KITTENS CARRY
BLUE X BLUE B--dd X B--dd	NO	YES	NO	?	ALL CARRY BLUE & ? CHOCOLATE
BLUE X CHOCOLATE B--dd X bbD--	YES	?	?	?	ALL CARRY BLUE AND CHOCOLATE
BLUE X BLACK B--dd X B--D--	YES	?	?	?	ALL CARRY BLUE & ? CHOCOLATE
BLUE X LILAC B--dd X bbdd	NO	YES	NO	?	ALL CARRY BLUE & CHOCOLATE
BLACK X CHOCOLATE B--D-- X bbD--	YES	?	?	?	ALL CARRY CHOCOLATE
BLACK X BLACK B--D-- X B--D--	YES	?	?	?	?
BLACK X LILAC B--D-- X bbdd	YES	?	?	?	ALL CARRY BLUE & CHOCOLATE
CHOCOLATE X CHOCOLATE bbD-- X bbD--	NO	NO	YES	?	ALL CARRY CHOCOLATE
CHOCOLATE X LILAC bbD-- X bbdd	NO	NO	YES	?	ALL CARRY BLUE & CHOCOLATE
LILAC X LILAC bbdd X bbdd	NO	NO	NO	YES	ALL CARRY BLUE & CHOCOLATE

-- = in genotype carried allele unknown
? =  dependent on what colour is carried