
Photo by
Gossamer1013
The cat above
is a boy cat of the Balinese
cat breed. I am not sure if he's
pedigree/purebred/retiree. He is definitely of a traditional appearance
and he has darkened up it seems (due to age?). I also know the
photographer is highly amusing.
This page about the Balinese
cat breed concerns a quick look at
genetics. To see a full description with the best photographs try this
page:
Balinese
cat. The genes that give the Balinese long hair are the same
as
those found in the
Javanese
cat.
Both the
Balinese and Javanese are longhaired versions of the
Siamese
cat, specifically the more
contemporary
Siamese cat (more slender),
although there is a traditional Balinese as well. There is also a very
popular
Traditional
Siamese cat, which on my reckoning is more popular
by far than the Modern Siamese.
Back to the Balinese cat breed and genetics. Both names are very nice
and there is no relationship between these cats and the country after
which the breeds are named. Except that both Java and Bali are islands
of Indonesia and both are in the region of Thailand formerly Siam .
They are slightly exotic names essentially and all linked
geographically.
A nice marketing idea.
The basic
genotype for this breed
is:
cscsll,
where
cs represents
the recessive gene that produces the Siamese pattern. Being recessive
it needs to be
homozygous at the position on the
chromosome (i.e. a
pair). And
l
represents the recessive longhaired gene that is also homozygous in
order to make its presence apparent in terms of actual long hair
(appearance or phenotype).
The recessive gene
cs
is one of a series of genes at what is called
the "albino
locus". Other genes are added to
the basic
genotype to create different color
coats. The
genotype for seal point (the
classic pointing as far as I am concerned - see
cat
coats pointed) is
aacscsll, where
aa
represents the
recessive non-agouti gene in
homozygous
form, producing self black (this means black).
When
the black is diluted the result is a blue point Balinese. The
genotype is:
aacscsddll,
where
dd
represents a recessive
gene that dilutes color in
homozygous
form. When black is diluted it creates blue/grey. A classic
blue cat is, for example, the
Russian
Blue. See also
cat coats dilution.
1
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