Colour Genotyping
Colour genotyping, what a fascinating subject isn't it? If you landed here, you probably either already raise alpacas or plan on raising these magnificent creatures in the future. Some of you may already be well versed in alpaca colour genotyping while some of you might just have started gaining interest in the subject. Hopefully this section helps you better understand what colour genotyping can do for your own breeding program.
ALPACA COLOUR GENOTYPING
AND THE CLASSIC GREY MUTATION
I originally created the following document to present at a webinar in 2021 and again at a seminar for our local alpaca association back in the fall of 2022. The document has since been amended with a few more sections to reflect new findings that have been made since then. The main goal of this document is to demystify coat colour genotyping by providing a general overview and by determining how genotypes can be used for reproduction purposes.
The first section will go over some of the basic concepts related to colour genes, their inheritance process and how this translates to colour genotyping in alpacas. Other sections will focus on how genotypes are distributed among colour phenotypes, how they can be used in breeding strategies and how to calculate colour outcome probabilities in progeny. The last section will focus on how this all translates into a classic grey breeding program.
Glad to share, happy reading!