There has now been human genetic health research indicating that
the same allele can behave differently depending on which parent
contributes it.
<http://www.sciencenews.org/index/generic/activity/view/id/50873/title/Mom_and_Dad_not_equally_to__blame_for_some_bad_genes>
(Might not be available yet for non-subscribers.)
>researchers at deCODE genetics in Iceland and colleagues report in
>the Dec. 17 Nature. The team uncovered common single-letter genetic
>changes -- called SNPs, short for single nucleotide polymorphisms --
>that were associated with diseases only when the change was
>inherited from a particular parent
and they give examples where certain genetics snippets may be harmful
or helpful depending on whether they come from the mother or father;
in fact, some can help if from one but harm if from the other.
Abstract:
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20016592
All this speaks even more to the essential importance of careful
tracing of all of the offspring if possible, something breeders should
aim for doing to the very best of their ability (and those who buy
their ferrets need to help with health data).
This may be such a basic thing physiologically that it could well apply
to ferrets for some of the problems to which they are susceptible. For
example (with no data and not even guessing but just an illustration
why this data might be important using a name just to make it the
example more accessible for understanding), maybe offspring are more
susceptible to insulinoma (or something else) down the line if the
parent of a given gender (just say the father in this example) is
from a line that has the problem but not if the other parent (just say
the mother in this example) is. Get it? It's not enough to know what
the lines have shown, but you have to also know WHICH line. If the
previous -- completely fictional -- example is correct, let's say,
then it would matter more for insulinoma if the father's line had a
genetic susceptibility than if the mother's line did. (Making it more
complicated, in some of the things studied in humans the SAME snippets
could reduce vulnerability if they came from one side of the family
but increase the vulnerability if inherited from the other side of the
family.
No one knows why could be -- yet.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/http://ferrethealth.org/archive/http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.htmlhttp://www.miamiferret.org/http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/http://www.ferretcongress.org/http://www.trifl.org/index.shtmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
[Posted in FML 6551]
