Gerbil Genetics ~ The Learning Curve

The Gerbil Genetics Learning Centre

Packed with detailed information and animated graphics, discover every aspect of gerbil genetics at your own pace.  Go on cellular journeys to discover how genes, chromosomes and DNA work, read how Mendel's Laws apply to gerbils, learn the aspects of basic breeding, and discover how the loci in gerbils affect their coats to produce the many colours we see today in our favourite pet, the Mongolian Gerbil.

Click here to enter the Gerbil Genetics Learning Centre

Gerbil Gene mutation timeline

A quick and easy to understand reference guide on all the various mutations that have appeared in gerbils since their introduction as a pet.

Click here to view the Mongolian Gerbil Mutation Timeline

Gerbil Gene Glossary

An easy to understand, quick reference guide on all the gerbil gene loci, their respective mutations, and how they effect the coat colour of the Mongolian Gerbil.

Click here to view the Gerbil Gene Glossary

The Loci in Gerbils

Detailed articles on the specific loci in Gerbils and other domestic species.

The Dilution locus

The Dilute Mutation in The Mongolian Gerbil & Other Domestic Species

The dilute mutation takes it's name from the affect the gene has on the coat colour of the animal. With the dilute gene the coat of the animal takes on a 'washed out' appearance, this is due to the failure of melanin containing vesicles being transported into the growing hair. The dilute gene is known to affect pigment transportation and also its deposition. This mutant gene is known in scientific literature as Myosin-5a (My05a (d)) and is a mutation of the protein Myosin 5. This mutation that is known to affect melanosome transport, also causes clumping of the pigment granules, which then gives the coat colour its diluted look.

Read the full article on the dilute mutation

The Pink-Eyed Dilution Locus

The Pink-Eyed Dilution Mutation in The Mongolian Gerbil & Other Domestic Species

The first early descriptions of the P locus and its mutations were by the maize geneticist Emerson, who analysed the inheritance of a variegating allele of the maize P locus during the early decades of the last century (1914, 1917 & 1929). In many domestic animals the Pink-eyed dilution mutation is a well known and very much established mutation, and in fancy mice its origins are ancient and are believed to have occurred first in Japanese wild mice (Mus musculus molossinus).

Read the full article on the pink-eyed dilution mutation.

The Dominant Spotting Locus

Understanding piebaldism

In January, 2003 after the Bradford championship show, the NGS held it's annual general meeting, at this meeting I put forward a proposal to give the mottled coat variety of the gerbil a provisional standard. I was pleased when this proposal was put to a vote and unanimously passed. Prior to this meeting the mottled gerbil had had to compete in the pied class and was often discriminated against as the white markings on this variety often well exceeded the acceptable amount of white markings that are laid down for the pied standard.

Read the full article on understanding piebaldism

Spotting Genetics

A new spotting gene in Mongolian gerbils?

For almost 40 years, a form of Dominant Spotting has been known and bred for in the Mongolian Gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus). The homozygous form is prenatal lethal, the homozygotes die in uteri of anaemia. Heterozygotes also suffer from a very mild form of anaemia but is so slight that they are not impaired by that condition.

Read the full article on Extreme White spotting by Kira Gysel.

Further Notes on Spotting Genetics

On a lot of prominent gerbil websites they report that breeding two spotted gerbils together will produce smaller litters because the gerbils that would be SpSp never come to exist in the womb. This information is wrong, and needs amending.

Read the full article on spotting genetics in Mongolian gerbils.

Other Articles

The pigmentation pathway ~ Where do all the coat colours in animals come from?

Meiosis in Gerbils

Meiosis is a special kind of cell division that leads to the formation of gametes. During meiosis the number of chromosomes must be halved in the daughter cells, and to do this properly, most organisms use an amazing strategy: during the first of the two meiotic divisions, homologous chromosomes associate in pairs, undergo a reciprocal genetic interchange, and then each member of the pair segregates into a different daughter cell. Genetic exchange, called meiotic recombination, is a key process to ensure that homologous chromosomes remain tightly associated until they segregate. In general, sex chromosomes are subjected to the same processes as the rest of chromosomes. But, of course, exceptions exist. This is the case in the Mongolian gerbil, a mammal whose sex chromosomes pair and segregate during male meiosis without undergoing meiotic recombination.

Read the full scientific paper on Meiosis in Mongolian gerbils