White - Faced Robos

[Tammy22]

Hi Everyone,

this is a bit of a strange question but can anyone help me?

I had the follwong email from someone this morning:


You may remember me contacting you in March regarding some clarification on whether I had ‘White-Faced’ or ‘Husky’ Roborovski Hamsters. As I had only managed to obtain two females I crossed to Normals with the result that I have only ever obtained Normals. At that point it looked that the gene that was producing the ‘paleness’ in colouring whether called ‘White-Faced’ or ‘Husky’ was recessive, although any information that I could find suggested that is was a dominant gene.

As a Biology teacher I was curious. Since then I have done a F1 back cross [Normal appearance] with the (white) mother and sure enough in the litter produced there were Normals and the three hamsters [digital photograph attached].

It is a recessive gene. These individuals actually seem paler than their mother and as you see they are certainly very attractive little animals.


I dont know if it is just me, but i cant seem to get my head round what he is talking about! it has really confused me as to what he is trying to say - can anyone give me an answer for him? I think i must still be asleep, as this is just not making sense to me at all!

Thanks,

Tammy x

I think he's saying that his "tests" show that husky/white-faced is a recessive gene rather than dominant as he's read everywhere - if husky was dominant, then there should have been some husky babies in his litter but they've all been normal.

That's my amateur interpretation anyway Tammy!
xx

[Tammy22]

Thanks Justine

I was sort of getting a similar idea - but the White - Faced Gene is dominant??

Tammy x

[WE55EX HAMSTERY]

I have come across this which mentions it to be a recessive gene:

http://homepage.mac.com/dymph/roborovski/index.html

I had always thought that it was a dominant one but this could possibly show that there are two genes that can produce a Husky.

Can we also see the photo?

[Tammy22]

Oh yes, sorry about that, here is one of the pics:

I have looked on that website many times - it is very good and very interesting too.

Tammy x

[internet_nobody]

From what I have seen people breed it is dominant...trouble is throw a little bit of biology education into the works and you suddenly think you're the bees knees in genetics (I think a few of us are guilty of this - and I am about to do it now :P).

His "F1" to "White faced Mum" shows nothing...because:

Assuming it is Dominant, and using "H" to denote the husky gene...

White Faced Mum (I'll call her F0 female) could either be HH or Hh. You cross her to a normal male (F0 male) who is hh.
You get F1 babies, who all look normal and are therefore hh (if they had inherited "H" from Mum they'd be white faced.. Cross F1 back to F0 female you're repeating your original cross, but this time you happen to get Hh and hh babies.

Assuming it is Recessive, F0 female is hh, F0 male could be HH or Hh. F1 babies all look normal, but have to be Hh (if they were hh they were white, and they have to inherit "h" from Mum).
You then cross F1 baby back to F0 female, hh to Hh, and get hh (white faced) and Hh (normal) babies.

It looks like he's assumed that nature agrees with probabilities, and that because if Husky is dominant his F1 litter should have been 50% normal, 50% husky...but sperm and eggs don't know maths

If he crosses F1 female to F0 male and then gets white faces, then it would show it is recessive...he's done the wrong cross.

[Tammy22]

Thank you so much IN

All of this is far too complicated for me!

I will send him a link to this post!!

Thanks again,

Tammy x

[NaomiR]

interestingly enough I have just had a (what I would call) second generation "white faced" litter, ie 1 parent (Dad) is full Husky Mum is normal but 1 of her parents (also Dad) was Husky - so it will be interesting to see what they babies look like.

Unfortunately they are only 3 days old at the moment, it was a bit of a surprise litter as I had decided not to actively breed robos (or any hammies) but found it impossible to seperate an established pair who had never previously bred.

So if you're struggling to get your hammies all loved up and in "the mood" send them round here, something about the ambiance in my shed they like

Anyway as soon as I can I will take pictures of the little ones and we'll see what we've got, interesting discussion thanks for sharing this Tammy.

[Emma1978]

My Husky male never sired any Husky babies either.

[Bunsey]

Originally Posted by Emma1978

My Husky male never sired any Husky babies either.

if he was heterozygous for it, then that would mean only 25% of the litter would be "supposed" to be husky, and as I_N said, nature doesn't always read the maths book of probability If he kept breeding, eventually there might be a husky. Not that i'm recommending breeding thousands of robos btw.