[nuedaimice]

Isn't Hereford just mice with the Irish Spotting gene selectively bred to look a certain way? We have the Irish Spotting gene running rampant in the U.S. Fancy (I've owned it many, many times from several sources including breeders and pet stores).

If its just Irish Spotting, why couldn't someone take their s^i mice and breed them to look like Hereford?

 

[nuedaimice]

http://littlerodent.tripod.com/id12.html

There is some information here on it... There are lots of sites that discuss it, but few that discuss it specifically for mice. Most of them are for cows, rats, and dogs. The gene seems to be the same in most situations (there is still debate on the dogs).

This is the gene that causes the recessive white spotting (piebald, if you will, although piebald is actually a modifier s^p) we see on most of the mice in the fancy:

http://www.informatics.jax.org/javawi2/servlet/WIFetch?page=markerDetail&key=18673

I have had mice that were Irish Spotted (proven with test matings) that had white markings from a headspot, white feet, white belly, half white tail to a full white collar and blaze, white stockings, white belly, and half white tail.

 

[nuedaimice]

There are 3 variations (in dogs) on the "S Locus"

s^p which makes piebald, which would resemble our piebald, broken, and even marked mice.
s^i which makes the Irish pattern seen on Aussies, Border Collies, etc. This could easily be bred to resemble Hereford.
s^w which is usually a head marking on each side of the face (over both the eye and ear) and a rump marking, which does resemble the dutch mouse.

Any one of these could be present on the S Locus either together, or paired with another gene from the locus (s^p/s^i or s^p/s^w).

It may very well be the same for mice.

 

[nuedaimice]

Right, as I said it may be the same. There is no way to say for sure. I still feel, though, judging by many, many photos I've seen where an Irish Spotted mouse was bred to resemble a hereford, that its very possible to breed a hereford to standard using those genes.

As anyone knows, breeding to standard is not ALWAYS using the same genes. For example, while its true that Silver is genetically aa/dd/pp, we all know that you can get a less mealy coat by breeding aa/pp to resemble Silver.

If breeding s^i/s^i gets you a hereford looking mouse with better type, then why not do it? And how will anyone ever know if it would be better or worse if no one ever tries it or everyone tells them not to because its the wrong gene?

If no one ever tried anything different or tried to breed a better mouse to meet the standard using the different genes from those everyone else used, then all of our cream mice would still be Ay based.