Genetics apply to all living things, so what you learn from this page isn't only for gerbils, but for all life as we know it.

First: What is a gene?

A gene is a piece of DNA(Dioxyribo Neucleic Acid) that gives a cell instructions. For example: The A gene tells the cell(and the rest of the gerbil) that it will be Agouti, and the a gene tells the cell that it will be black. Small letters represent recessive genes, which means that there has to be 2 recessive genes in order for the gene to be expressed. So Aa is still Agouti, but aa is black. DNA is made up of 4 parts: Adenine, Thymene, Cytosine and Guanine. These parts are like building blocks and can only fit in certain ways. Adenine fits with Thymene and Cytosine fits with Guanine. That way, when the cell divides, the information will stay the same in the cell. This works most of the time but sometimes there is a mutation

These genes combine to form proteins and from there, the proteins, string together to form DNA.

So what is a mutation?

A mutation is when a gene changes from it's original form. It does this when a cell divides. During cell division, the chromosomes form(they aren't visible during normal cell life) so that they can easily be moved. The DNA twists together into a tight package. The chromosome divides in half and sometimes the info is switched from one side to the other resulting in a mutation and the chromosome not being the same as the original. Sometimes this is a good thing, resulting in greater resistance to disease in plants or changes in the coat colour of gerbils. Sometimes this is bad and causes diseases like cancer. UV(Ultra Violet) rays can make cells mutate and sometimes cause cancer. This is why it is not wise to stay out in the sun for long periods of time.

So this is the basis of all life and it is good to understand this if you want to learn about gerbil genetics.

What about gerbil genetics?

First of all, the loci:(listed in alphabetical order)

The A locus This controls whether the gerbil is self coloured(all one colour) or white bellied. Ex: Agouti is white belly(A gene) and black is self(a gene). Self can have a different colour on it's points like a burmese. White gerbils may or may not be self since the colour is controlled by other genes (c(h) and p).

The C locus: The C locus will control the amount of colour in the gerbil. It is also called the albino locus because this is where the albino gene (not yet discovered) would be. The c(h) gene in this locus is the best single gene at removing colour. When combined with the p gene, the animal is white(looks albino). This gives the animal a genotype of -- pp -- c(h)c(h) E- D-. Click for genotypes of other gerbil colours.

The D locus:This locus will dull out the colour of the gerbil coat (if the d gene is present) making the gerbil look washed out. See Julian Barker's page for pictures of the new DILUTE gerbils.

The E locus: This locus will control the amount of black and yellow in the hair. Gerbils with the e or e(f) gene will have the yellow pigment extended in the hair so that an animal with the genotype A- pp G- CC ee(f) D- will be a yellow fox.

The G locus: This will control the amount of black in the hair of the gerbil so that a gerbil with gg will have less black and appear grey(unless there are other recessive genes present).

The P locus: This locus is responsible for diluting the coat and eyes when the gene p is present.

Now you can understand what the different genes do and how they work together to make the gerbil coat the colour it is. For doing simple gene predictions you can use a Punnett Square. For more complex predictions go to the Gerbil Gene Predictor.  You could do these more complex predictions yourself but that would take a long time and you might make a few mistakes along the way.

First you have to figure out what genes the parents can pass on to their offspring. With a gerbil that is Aa, it is pretty obvious that the genes it can pass on to it's offspring are A and a. So you put those letters in the punnett square. Since in this example, both gerbils are the same, you can put the same letters in the other part of the table. Then all you have to do is to combine the 2 letters togeter. When you do this you will have the possibilities for that pairing. The possibilities for the example below are AA, Aa and aa. When looking at the table closer you can see that the specific possibilities are 25% AA, 50% Aa and 25% aa, but since Aa is still agouti, the phenotype(the way the gerbil looks) is 75% Agouti.

Here is an example of a Punnett Square:  

	A	a
A	AA	Aa
a	Aa	aa