Hello Shelly,
I was reviewing your article posted on the web about genotyping rabbits. It's a great start. I'm a fourth year college student, who used to raise rabbits too! I am studying biochemistry and cell/molecular biology. I would like to offer you some tips and suggestions for your article to make it even better. Please don't think I'm trying to reprimand you. I enjoy genetics and would like to help you refine your article.
I would like to start by offering you some scientific vocab. that is used in genetics and refine the definitions you already have. Scientists don't use the term gene set. Instead it's referred to as a genome. This is the entire set of genes that make an individual. Subset usually is not used either. Series is the term for this. It is a set of alleles for a specific locus. Locus ( loci for plural) is the particular place along the length of a certain chromosome where a given gene is located. An allele is defined as an alternative form of a gene. The terms homozygous and heterozygous describe conditions of the genes. Two different alleles for the same gene or two of the same alleles for a gene.
Who you talk about genetic concepts the second line should be more like " For any given gene, an animal can only have two alleles or copies of that gene". The word subset shouldn't be used the term series is the better choice. Subset just isn't used. When you say "Realize that these are just arbitrary groupings......" This isn't true. The letters chosen for to represent the alleles is somewhat arbitrary but the groups are distinct. Each series ([A, a, at],[B, b]) is assigned this way because they are the alleles for a specific gene. You description of the alleles is excellent!!!
You're right about the crossing over but I found out some new information you might like. This information comes from Dr. Richard R. Fox who is doing research into the rabbit genome. This information was e-mailed to me from Dr. Hein van Lith from the Small Animal Institute in the Netherlands. Feel free to add this to the section you talk about linkage and crossing over.
Crossing over is an event that occurs fairly rarely but does occur. (The two copies of the genes are located on strands of DNA, each two copies are joined together to form a chromosome. Each copy is called a chromatid. If two genes are on the same chromatid and far enough apart the two chromatids can break apart and swap sections. There by reshuffled the alleles.) The term linked genes reefers to the fact that they are on the same chromosome or if you like chromatid.
Dr. Richard R. Fox determined that the B and C genes are linked, distance 42.8 cM. The Du and En genes are closely linked, 1.2 cM. The A and W genes are linked, distance 29.9 cM. The measurement is in centiMorgans. Named after the guy that did the experiments of coarse. A centiMorgan is not a physical measure. It's a way to measure distance by the amount of crossing over between two genes. You can see that the Du and En genes are linked very closely.
There's also a handy dandy tool we geneticists use when trying to determine genotypes of animal. It's called a punnet square. You may or may not of heard of them but I'll tell you about it and maybe you can include it in your article. A punnet square is a grid, kind of how you set up you tables. Down the left side is usually one parent and across the top is the other. Each column represents the gametes from that parent listed and each row represents the gametes from the other parent. ( Gametes are the reproductive cells, Eggs and sperm) I attached a copy of a punnet square and it shows how to use one!
Thanks for listening to my suggestions. It's great that you have the article up for others. I hope you use some of the suggestions and give it a good polish!
J. Ross