Along with the basic five loci, there are several other gene sets, modifiers, and polygenes (a gene whose individual effect on a phenotype is too small to be observed, but which can act together with others to produce observable variation). I may delve further into these in later lessons, but for now a very short summary follows:

SECONDARY GENES

MODIFIERS & POLYGENES

Modifiers and polygenes can also affect colors and patterns, and don’t have specific known loci to track them. A couple of the more well-known modifiers are:
  • Booted: See En under the E loci
  • Snowballing: White undercoat, with just the tips of the hair shaft colored. Usually more pronounced in younger rabbits, and often molts out as the rabbit matures.
  • Blanket/Spots: The amount of patterning in a broken patterned rabbit
  • Rufus: The word rufus is from the classical latin word for red- this is the amount of red pigmentation in a rabbit’s coat- for more info, visit: https://www.barrowbunnies.com/the-rufus-modifier.html
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Vienna-marked Rex doe displaying distinctive blue eyes associated with the vienna gene
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Blue Argente Brun junior buck displaying the silvering gene
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Silver fox kit displaying heavy silvering
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Vienna-marked opal Rex doe displaying vienna markings

Moving On To Punnett Squares