December1946  

  Fancy color varieties of animals are, with very few exceptions, pure breeding combinations of simple mendelian genes. In some cases they contain but one pair of mutated or altered genes that produce the bizarre color by which the breed is characterized. These sports or mutations arise spon­taneously and unpredictably, but once they have arisen', we may use them in combination for synthesizing new and attractive pure breeding varieties. We may select them with ease because use these sports are inherited according to the simple laws of Mendel. In some animal species, mutations altering the conformity of the body have been selected according to man's whim. Man does not care what weird shape his dog may have, but cat fanciers have not gone in for unusual shapes in general, and so most breeds of cats look like cats, although, if man did not have such a stereotyped idea of what a fancy cat should look like, he could twist this creature by means of genetics into a number of bizarre forms as he has done with the dog.

            For example, I once had given to me a Manx cat with double paws on all four feet. Starting with this I could have created a new breed, and I could have added other characters to it such as hereditary lack of canine teeth and Siamese voice.

Some of the fancy varieties of cats have been shown by genetic analysis to have resulted from the selection of a single gene, mutation or natural sport affecting the coat that breeds true.

An example of this is the color bred Brown Tabby Persian Cat that differs from the short-haired tabby merely in respect to one simple, recessive, mendelizing unit-character, namely, long hair. More often, however, our domestic varieties have been synthesized by combining a number of true breeding gene mutations in the same fancy stock. Thus, the Blue-Point Siamese Cat is a combination of (1) the non-tabby ticking pattern plus (2) Maltese-Blue dilution of pigment plus (3) the Siamese pattern of albinistic pigment development.

Occasionally combinations are fancied that will never breed true. A good example is that of the Tortoiseshell Cat. A White-Faced Blue-Buff-and-White tricolor Cat can never become a true breeding variety. In the first place, the white face pattern is a hybrid-pattern, its true breeding form plac­ing white on belly, sides, shoulders and most of the head except the ears. In the second place, red and black pigments are determined by genes in the X or sex determining chromo­some. Females only carry two of these X chromosomes, males carry but one. Hence, no male with normal sex determination will ever bear both red and black pigmentation. Blue-and-­Buff cats are merely Black-and-Red- Tortoiseshells which are also pure bred from Maltese Blue, and hence there may never be a normal Blue-and-Buff male. Occasionally a Tortoise male is reported, but also invariably they are abnormal sexually, and possibly in some cases represent transformed females.

Many cat fanciers abhor the idea of synthesizing beautiful new varieties by combining the pure breed characters already known. But someone will produce these new varieties either by accident or by intent and as soon as their hybrid origin is forgotten, they will become accepted varieties and prizes will be awarded to these cats in the shows.

A decade ago there was but one variety of rex-rabbit, the gray, then called Castorrex (Latin for Beaver King), by Fr. Gillet, the French priest who developed it. All possible com­binations of this short hair character with other rabbit colors were made at Harvard for a study of the genetics of the rex short hair. Many of these discards of the scientific laboratory were disposed of at a quarter apiece. Some were given away. Now many of these combinations produced by hybridization have been established from Harvard discards and are now accepted breeds, pedigree conscious and winners of many rib­bons. Even individuals bred in our laboratory have been placed in shows and have won first prize. In Germany , France and England some of the same crosses were made and some of the same varieties were synthesized just as they were produced at Harvard.

The Reserve Best Siamese Kitten in the show in London , in 1934, was a Blue Point Siamese. Tradition still tells us of the origin of Smoke Persians in England following the hybridization of a Silver Persian with a Black Persian.

The original Siamese cat was a short-haired tabby. No fancier ever cared for anything so common! Fanciers take a fiendish delight in calling short-haired tabbies, "alley-cats." Then came the albinistic mutations that we call Siamese. They had streaky tabby markings. The Siamese pattern was something striking! Another mutation, non-tabby, changed some tabbies to black. Those who fancied the Siamese pattern prized more highly the combination of Siamese and non­tabby because they found that Siamese clear of coat and tips were much more attractive than those streaked with the tabby markings. Those of us who have seen Tabby Siamese feel the same way about the matter. Although occasionally a few Siamese showing tabby markings get into the shows, they are seldom, if ever, awarded prizes today. Thus, the Seal Point Siamese came into being as the result of the hybridiza­tion of Tabby Siamese with Black or non-tabby.

We have already stated that Blue Point Siamese is the combination of (1) non-tabby (black) plus (2) Maltese-­Blue plus (3) the Siamese grade of albinism.

              Both the Seal Point and Blue Point Siamese may be re­synthesized at any time by the geneticist because he has by his analysis learned the structural design, the building blocks (genetic characters) and how they may be combined in the fewest possible number of generations.

            But the treasure of any science is its predictive value; the power to imagine new things unknown and often undreamed of, combined with the power to provide the quickest and most accurate method of producing those new combinations. Thus, in 1935, we predicted the appearance of new varieties namely, White-face Siamese, Chinese White Siamese, Piebald Siamese. Red Point Siamese, Siamese-Persian.

            At that time we said that in fifteen years Siamese-Persians

and Red Point Siamese would be winning prizes.

            We said that Dr. Thompson's Burmese would become well known and popular.

Eleven years have passed. I do not like to pose as a clairvoyant; but Siamese Persians have appeared in the shows; Dr. Thompson's Burmese is a registered breed, and are found in many shows. Red Point Siamese are developed in San Francisco unless they have been disposed of, because Dr. Thompson had a San Francisco veterinarian working on the production of them in 1936 when I visited him.

White-face Siamese could be a splendid, weird breed with the suggestion of the badger in its face and bearing a kinky tail. I would like to see it established, and a stock inbred through four generations so that fanciers would have to accept it. Of course, it would vary in coat pattern somewhat and only about a quarter of the kittens would have good markings for some time, because the ordinary white face characteristic is produced by a white-face gene plus a solid- color gene and hence all well marked white-face cats are hybrids.

Piebald Siamese will crop out in White-face Siamese stock. Nobody will want them save the wise White-face Siamese breeder. He will keep Piebald Siamese females that are not attractive and mate them to Seal Point Siamese males. The results should be 100% White-face Siamese kittens.

Chinese White has not come on the market. It is raised exclusively by a few elite Chinese families that are jealous of their monopoly. I visited Peking in 1936 and learned that they have a slightly yellowish coat with pink eyes. If they ever get into the fancy, I predict that somebody will make a very beautiful breed by combining the Chinese white gene with Brown tabby.

Our Blue Point Siamese was probably created from selection following a cross of Siamese to Russian Blue in England . The making of these other breeds I have mentioned is just as simple, save for Red Point Siamese in which sex-linked characters are involved.

I would be happy to hear from anybody who has obtained any of these combinations with Siamese that I have de­scribed, or any other.

There is no reason why Siamese lovers should not exploit the possibility of using the Siamese coat pattern in combina­tion with other genes to create new, lovely and interesting Cats of the Future.  

Biographical Sketch of Clyde E. Keeler, 1900-1994