While viewing The Science of Dogs, I became interested in genetics and how they relate to the color of a dog. I found the following information on Labrador Retrievers and thought you'd be interested to know why Bronx is black and Ziti is yellow.
A pair of black Labrador Retrievers may produce some yellow puppies as well as the expected black puppies if both parents carry the recessive yellow gene. In this case, each parent would have both the black and the yellow color gene. The black color gene is dominant and the yellow color gene is recessive.
BLACK/yellow (female parent) x BLACK/yellow (male parent) = puppies with genetic make-up that can be BLACK/BLACK, BLACK/yellow or yellow/yellow.
Both the BLACK/BLACK puppies and the BLACK/yellow puppies would be black.
The recessive yellow gene would be hidden in the BLACK/yellow puppies. They would be just as black as their BLACK/BLACK siblings.
Puppies that had inherited the recessive yellow gene from both parents (yellow/yellow) would be yellow and would not have the ability to produce black puppies unless they were mated to a dog that carried the dominant black gene (BLACK/yellow or BLACK/BLACK).
It's clear now, isn't it? I think I have to read it again!
A pair of black Labrador Retrievers may produce some yellow puppies as well as the expected black puppies if both parents carry the recessive yellow gene. In this case, each parent would have both the black and the yellow color gene. The black color gene is dominant and the yellow color gene is recessive.
BLACK/yellow (female parent) x BLACK/yellow (male parent) = puppies with genetic make-up that can be BLACK/BLACK, BLACK/yellow or yellow/yellow.
Both the BLACK/BLACK puppies and the BLACK/yellow puppies would be black.
The recessive yellow gene would be hidden in the BLACK/yellow puppies. They would be just as black as their BLACK/BLACK siblings.
Puppies that had inherited the recessive yellow gene from both parents (yellow/yellow) would be yellow and would not have the ability to produce black puppies unless they were mated to a dog that carried the dominant black gene (BLACK/yellow or BLACK/BLACK).
It's clear now, isn't it? I think I have to read it again!