Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. Spock first appeared in the original Star Trek series serving aboard the starship Enterprise as science officer and first officer, as commanding officer of two iterations of the vessel. Spock's mixed human-Vulcan heritage serves as an important plot element in many of the character's appearances. Along with Captain James T. Kirk and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, he is one of the three central characters in the original Star Trek series and its films. After retiring from Starfleet, Spock serves as a Federation ambassador, becomes involved in the ill-fated attempt to save Romulus from a supernova, leading him to live out the rest of his life in a parallel timeline. Spock was played by actor Leonard Nimoy in the original series, in the animated Star Trek series, eight of the Star Trek feature films, a two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation; the character has appeared in numerous Star Trek novels and video games. Numerous actors have played the character since Nimoy: several portrayed the various stages of Spock's rapid growth in the 1984 Star Trek film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Zachary Quinto has played Spock in the feature films Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek Beyond.
Star Trek: Discovery has used actor Ethan Peck to portray the role of Spock. Spock's backstory has been explained during the course of several episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, the 2009 film Star Trek and the episode "Yesteryear" of Star Trek: The Animated Series. Born to the Vulcan Sarek and the human Amanda Grayson, Spock has a troubled childhood due to his mixed heritage. On his homeworld, he was bullied and tormented by full-blooded Vulcan children, who wished to incite the emotions of his human nature. For a time, he grew up alongside his older half-brother Sybok, until the older brother was cast out for rejecting logic. In the episode "Amok Time", it is revealed that Spock became betrothed to T'Pring during his childhood. Sarek supported Spock's scientific learning and supporting his application to the Vulcan Science Academy, as mentioned in "Journey to Babel". In the 2009 film Star Trek, Spock is seen rejecting his acceptance into the Vulcan Science Academy on the basis that they would never accept someone, only half-Vulcan.
Although this film set up the Kelvin timeline seen in this and films, writer Roberto Orci stated that he felt that the actions were unaffected by the changes in this timeline and so would have occurred in the same manner prior to The Original Series. Because Spock did not enter the VSA, sought to join Starfleet instead, he did not speak to his father for the following 18 years. Spock appeared as the science officer on the USS Enterprise in the first pilot for the series, "The Cage"; this was not shown on television at the time, but the events of the episode were shown in the two-part episode "The Menagerie" of the first season, Spock's previous 11 years of service on the Enterprise were described. Spock was one of the members of the away team who joined Captain Christopher Pike on a mission to Talos IV in order to investigate a distress call. Spock did appear in the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", but this was broadcast as the third episode. During the events of that pilot, Spock became concerned at the risk to the ship posed by Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell and suggested possible solutions to Captain James T. Kirk.
The earliest appearance of Spock in the series as broadcast was "The Man Trap", the first such episode. When he needs to knock out an evil version of Kirk in "The Enemy Within", he uses a Vulcan nerve pinch. Together with Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott work together to rejoin the good and evil versions of the Captain, split following a transporter accident. During "Miri", he finds himself to be the only member of the landing party to be immune to the physical effects of the disease affecting human adults on the planet. However, he realises that he is a carrier and could infect the Enterprise if he were to return. Doctor Leonard McCoy manages allowing the team to return to the ship; when Simon van Gelder enters the bridge armed with a phaser in "Dagger of the Mind", Spock subdues him with a nerve pinch. He conducts a mind meld with van Gelder as part of the investigation into the activities of the nearby colony. After the power to the colony is shut down, a protective force field drops, Spock leads an away team to rescue Kirk.
Spock is reunited with Christopher Pike in "The Menagerie". Pike had been promoted to Fleet Captain but suffered an accident, resulting in severe burns and confining him to a wheelchair and restricting his communication to yes/no answers via a device connected to his brainwaves. Spock directs the ship to travel to Talos IV, a banned planet, he recounts the events of "The Cage" under a tribunal to Kirk and Commodore Jose I. Mendez; as the Enterprise arrives at the planet, Mendez is revealed to be a Talosian illusion. At the same time, the real Mendez communicates from Starfleet, giving permission for Pike to be transported to the planet, all charges against Spock are dropped. While the Enterprise is under threat in "Balance of Terror", Spock is accused by Lieutenant Stiles of knowing more about the Romulans than he admits when the alien's similar physical appearance is revealed. Spock hypothesises, he saves the life of Stiles in the process. Spock leads a landing party on the shuttlecraft Galileo in "The Galile
Gene
In biology, a gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA or RNA that codes for a molecule that has a function. During gene expression, the DNA is first copied into RNA; the RNA can be directly functional or be the intermediate template for a protein that performs a function. The transmission of genes to an organism's offspring is the basis of the inheritance of phenotypic trait; these genes make up different DNA sequences called genotypes. Genotypes along with developmental factors determine what the phenotypes will be. Most biological traits are under the influence of polygenes as well as gene–environment interactions; some genetic traits are visible, such as eye color or number of limbs, some are not, such as blood type, risk for specific diseases, or the thousands of basic biochemical processes that constitute life. Genes can acquire mutations in their sequence, leading to different variants, known as alleles, in the population; these alleles encode different versions of a protein, which cause different phenotypical traits.
Usage of the term "having a gene" refers to containing a different allele of the same, shared gene. Genes evolve due to natural selection / survival of the fittest and genetic drift of the alleles; the concept of a gene continues to be refined. For example, regulatory regions of a gene can be far removed from its coding regions, coding regions can be split into several exons; some viruses store their genome in RNA instead of DNA and some gene products are functional non-coding RNAs. Therefore, a broad, modern working definition of a gene is any discrete locus of heritable, genomic sequence which affect an organism's traits by being expressed as a functional product or by regulation of gene expression; the term gene was introduced by Danish botanist, plant physiologist and geneticist Wilhelm Johannsen in 1909. It is inspired by the ancient Greek: γόνος, that means offspring and procreation; the existence of discrete inheritable units was first suggested by Gregor Mendel. From 1857 to 1864, in Brno, he studied inheritance patterns in 8000 common edible pea plants, tracking distinct traits from parent to offspring.
He described these mathematically as 2n combinations where n is the number of differing characteristics in the original peas. Although he did not use the term gene, he explained his results in terms of discrete inherited units that give rise to observable physical characteristics; this description prefigured Wilhelm Johannsen's distinction between phenotype. Mendel was the first to demonstrate independent assortment, the distinction between dominant and recessive traits, the distinction between a heterozygote and homozygote, the phenomenon of discontinuous inheritance. Prior to Mendel's work, the dominant theory of heredity was one of blending inheritance, which suggested that each parent contributed fluids to the fertilisation process and that the traits of the parents blended and mixed to produce the offspring. Charles Darwin developed a theory of inheritance he termed pangenesis, from Greek pan and genesis / genos. Darwin used the term gemmule to describe hypothetical particles. Mendel's work went unnoticed after its first publication in 1866, but was rediscovered in the late 19th century by Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns, Erich von Tschermak, who reached similar conclusions in their own research.
In 1889, Hugo de Vries published his book Intracellular Pangenesis, in which he postulated that different characters have individual hereditary carriers and that inheritance of specific traits in organisms comes in particles. De Vries called these units "pangenes", after Darwin's 1868 pangenesis theory. Sixteen years in 1905, Wilhelm Johannsen introduced the term'gene' and William Bateson that of'genetics' while Eduard Strasburger, amongst others, still used the term'pangene' for the fundamental physical and functional unit of heredity. Advances in understanding genes and inheritance continued throughout the 20th century. Deoxyribonucleic acid was shown to be the molecular repository of genetic information by experiments in the 1940s to 1950s; the structure of DNA was studied by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins using X-ray crystallography, which led James D. Watson and Francis Crick to publish a model of the double-stranded DNA molecule whose paired nucleotide bases indicated a compelling hypothesis for the mechanism of genetic replication.
In the early 1950s the prevailing view was that the genes in a chromosome acted like discrete entities, indivisible by recombination and arranged like beads on a string. The experiments of Benzer using mutants defective in the rII region of bacteriophage T4 showed that individual genes have a simple linear structure and are to be equivalent to a linear section of DNA. Collectively, this body of research established the central dogma of molecular biology, which states that proteins are translated from RNA, transcribed from DNA; this dogma has since been shown to have exceptions, such as reverse transcription in retroviruses. The modern study of genetics at the level of DNA is known as molecular genetics. In 1972, Walter Fiers and his team were the first to determine the sequence of a gene: that of Bacteriophage MS2 coat protein; the subsequent development of chain-termination DNA sequencing in 1977 by Frederick Sanger improved the efficiency of sequencing and turned it into a routine laboratory tool.
An automated version of the Sanger method was used in early phases of the
The International Cat Association
The International Cat Association is considered the world's largest genetic cat registry. A North American organization, it now has a worldwide presence; the organization has a genetic registry for pedigreed and household pet cats and is one of the world's largest sanctioning bodies for cat shows. TICA's activities include: encouraging its members to be owners and breeders of cats who work together to promote the preservation of pedigreed cats and the health and welfare of domestic cats maintaining a certified pedigree registry providing cat shows which promote both pedigreed and non-pedigreed cats promoting positive relations between breeders in the USA and other countries setting up a foundation to encourage research on feline health issues and to provide lists of resource materials on health issues to its members TICA administers the rules for the licensing and management of hundreds of cat shows annually in 104 countries; the TICA show season runs from May 1 to April 30 of a given year at which point all Regional and International Award points are reset.
All TICA shows are open to the public. A TICA cat show is a number of smaller shows all running at the same time in various “rings” throughout the show hall; each ring is run by a licensed TICA judge who evaluates each cat based on a written standard that describes the ideal for each particular breed. Household pets and household pet kittens, are not judged against a standard but instead are evaluated on overall condition, health and personality. TICA recognizes cats for competition in 8 classes; each class is judged separately. For example, alters are not judged against kittens; each cat entered in the show is assigned an identifying number based on its class and coat length so that exhibitors know when their cats are needed in a ring. In the rare instance where there are more cats than fit in the range of numbers, the next class starts with the first available number. For example, if there are 55 longhair kittens those kittens are 1-55, the shorthair kittens would start at 56. A typical judging ring is made up of an L or U shaped arrangement of cages, with the judge’s table in the center.
Three people work in each judging ring: the judge and steward. All TICA judges are trained and licensed to evaluate each breed of cat in order of how well they represent their individual breed standard; the clerk acts as an executive assistant to the judge. They are responsible for the accuracy of all records of the ring; each clerk keeps a marked catalog of the results of the ring and validates that what the judge writes in their own records is how the awards were presented in their evaluation to the audience. A steward helps keeps the cages clean and disinfected in between cats in order to prevent illnesses from spreading. There are two types of judging rings at TICA shows and Specialty. Allbreed rings will have all longhair cats and shorthair cats within each class judged together in competition with one another. In a Specialty ring, longhair cats within each class are only judged against longhair cats and shorthair cats are only judged against shorthair cats. Regardless of the ring type, each judge evaluates every cat entered in the show.
The cat show competition is structured like a pyramid. First, all of the entries are divided into their respective classes. Within each of these classes, cats are called to the judging ring according to breed and color/pattern; the judge handles each cat placed in the judging ring. Each cat is taken from their cage, placed on the judging table and evaluated against the written standard for the breed; some judges will use toys to get a better look at a cat’s eye shape, ear size and placement and overall balance. Although some associations make a cat’s title known, the only information provided to a TICA judge about each cat is its: breed, color and age; the judge has no way of knowing if it is the cat’s first show or how it has performed in other rings. After the judge is done evaluating each cat in a breed group, they will hang a colored ribbons on the cat's cages to award Best of Color and Division. TICA does not have Best of Breed ribbons but the judge will announce their choices and note their selections in the Judge's Book.
The clerk will write down each of these selections for the record. Best of Color: The judge will first award the best of color through the 5th Best of Color for each breed. For example, if seven blue British Shorthairs are competing; the cat is judged against the whole breed standard, not just color. Out of the seven British Shorthairs competing they are judged against how the fulfill the full British Shorthair standard. “Best of Color” does not mean that the cat has the best blue coat. All Household Pets and Household Pet Kittens will receive a Best of Color award regardless of how many cats of a particular color there are. Best of Division: From the color winners, the judge will select a Best and Third Best of Division. For example, the seven blue British Shorthairs belong to the Traditional Solid Division. Other solid colored British Shorthairs would be judged in the Solid Division. Tabbies would be judged in the tabby division and so forth. Household Pet Kittens do not receive division awards.
Best of Breed: Once a judge has selected their First through Third of Division cats, they will select Best and Third Best of Breed from all of the breed’s divisions. Household Pet and Household Pet Kittens do not receive breed awards. After the judge has seen all of the cats in a particular class, they decide on their best exhibits of each breed and ask for
Landrace
A landrace is a domesticated, locally adapted, traditional variety of a species of animal or plant that has developed over time, through adaptation to its natural and cultural environment of agriculture and pastoralism, due to isolation from other populations of the species. Landraces are distinguished from cultivars, from breeds in the standardized sense, although the term landrace breed is sometimes used as distinguished from the term standardized breed when referring to cattle. Specimens of a landrace tend to be genetically uniform, but are more diverse than members of a standardized or formal breed; some standardized animal breeds originate from attempts to make landraces more consistent through selective breeding and a landrace may become a more formal breed with the creation of a breed registry and/or publication of a breed standard. In such a case, the landrace may be thought of as a "stage" in breed development. However, in other cases, formalizing a landrace may result in the genetic resource of a landrace being lost through crossbreeding.
Landraces are distinct from ancestral wild species of modern stock, from separate species or subspecies derived from the same ancestor as modern domestic stock. Landraces are not all derived from ancient stock unmodified by human breeding interests. In a number of cases, most dogs and horses, domestic animals have escaped in sufficient numbers in an area to breed feral populations that, through evolutionary pressure, can form new landraces in only a few centuries. In other cases, simple failure to maintain breeding regimens can do the same. For example, selectively bred cultivars can become new landraces when loosely selective reproduction is applied. Increasing adoption of and reliance upon modern, purposefully selected plant strains, considered improved – "scientifically bred to be uniform and stable" – has led to a reduction in biodiversity; the majority of the genetic diversity of domesticated species lies in landraces and other traditionally used varieties, a "reservoir of genetic resources".
General features that characterize a landrace may include: It is morphologically distinctive and identifiable, yet remains "dynamic". It is genetically adapted to, has a reputation for being able to withstand, the conditions of the local environment, including climate and pests cultural practices, it is not the product of formal breeding programs, may lack systematic selection and improvement by breeders. It is maintained and fostered less deliberately than a standardized breed, with its genetic isolation principally a matter of geography acting upon whatever animals that happened to be brought by humans to a given area, it has a historical origin in a specific geographic area, will have its own local name, will be classified according to intended purpose. Where yield can be measured, a landrace will show high stability of yield under adverse conditions, but a moderate yield level under managed conditions. At the level of genetic testing, its heredity will show a degree of integrity, but still some genetic heterogeneity.
Not every source on the topic enumerates each of these criteria, they may be weighted differently depending on a given source's focus. Additionally, not all cultivars agreed to be landraces exhibit all possible landrace characteristics. Plant landraces have been the subject of more intensive study, the majority of the academic literature about landraces is focused on agricultural botany, not animal husbandry. Most plant landraces are associated with traditional agricultural systems. While many landrace animals are associated with farming, other domestic animals have been put to use as modes of transportation, as companion animals, for sporting purposes, for other non-farming uses, so their geographic distribution may differ. For example, horse landraces are less common because human use of them for transport has meant that they have moved with people more and than most other domestic animals, reducing the incidence of populations locally genetically isolated for extensive periods of time; the word landrace means'country-breed' and close cognates of it are found in various Germanic languages.
The term was first defined by Kurt von Rümker in 1908, more described in 1909 by U. J. Mansholt, who wrote that landraces have better "stability of their characteristics" and "resistance capacity to tolerate adverse influences" but lower production capacity than cultivars, are apt to change genetically when moved to another environment. H. Kiessling added in 1912 that a landrace is a mixture of phenotypic forms despite relative outward uniformity, a great adaptability to its natural and human environment; the word entered non-academic English in the early 1930s, by way of the Danish Landrace pig, a particular breed of lop-eared swine. Aside from some standardized breeds having "Landrace" in their names, actual landraces and standardized breeds are sometimes further confused when the word "breed" is used broadly; as one example, a glossary in a Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations guideline defines landrace or landrace breed as "a breed that has developed through adaptation to the natural environment and traditional production system in which it has been raised".
It defines breed expansively and in multiple ways, with a focus on t
Cat coat genetics
Cat coat genetics affecting the coloration, pattern and texture is a complex subject, many genes are involved. Cat coat genetics can produce a variety of patterns; these should not be confused with a breed of cat. Furthermore, cats may show the color and/or pattern particular to a certain breed without being of that breed. For example, cats may have point coloration, but not be Siamese; the browning gene B/b/bl codes for TYRP1, an enzyme involved in the metabolic pathway for eumelanin pigment production. Its dominant form, B, will produce black eumelanin, it has two recessive variants, b, bl, with bl being recessive to both B and b. Chocolate is a rich brown color, is referred to as chestnut in some breeds. Cinnamon is a lighter reddish brown; the sex-linked Orange gene, O/o, determines. In cats with orange fur, phaeomelanin replaces eumelanin; this gene is located on the X chromosome. The orange allele is O, is codominant with non-orange, o. Males can only be orange or non-orange due to only having one X chromosome.
Since females have two X chromosomes, they have two alleles of this gene. OO results in orange fur, oo results in black or brown fur, Oo results in a tortoiseshell cat, in which some parts of the fur are orange and others areas non-orange. Male tortoiseshell cats are known to exist, but due to the genetics involved, they always exhibit Klinefelter syndrome due to possessing an additional X chromosome; this color is known as red by breeders. Other names include yellow and marmalade. Red show cats have a deep orange color, but it can present as a yellow or light ginger color. Unidentified "rufousing polygenes" are theorized to be the reason for this variance. Orange is epistatic to nonagouti, so all red cats are tabbies. "Solid" red show cats are low contrast ticked tabbies. The Dense pigment gene, D/d, codes for melanophilin, a protein involved in the transportation and deposition of pigment into a growing hair; when a cat has two of the recessive d alleles, black fur becomes "blue", chocolate fur becomes "lilac", cinnamon fur becomes fawn, red fur becomes cream.
Barrington Brown is a recessive browning gene that dilutes black to mahogany, brown to light brown and chocolate to pale coffee. It has only been observed in laboratory cats; the Dilution modifier gene, Dm, "caramelizes" the dilute colors as a dominant trait. The existence of this phenomenon as a discrete gene is a controversial subject among feline enthusiasts. A mutation at the extension locus E/e changes black pigment to light amber; this phenomenon was first identified in Norwegian Forest cats. A modifying factor has been hypothesized in shaded silver and chinchilla Persians whose fur turns pale golden in adulthood, due to low levels of phaeomelanin production; these cats resemble shaded or tipped goldens, but tipped silvers. This is related to the phenomenon known as "tarnishing" in silvers. Tabby cats are striped due to the agouti gene, their stripes have an distribution of pigment, while the background is made up of banded hairs. Tabby cats show the following traits: M on forehead. Thin pencil lines on face.
Black "eyeliner" appearance and white or pale fur around eyeliner. Pigmented lips and paws. A pink nose outlined in darker pigment. Torso and tail banding; the Agouti gene, A/a, codes for agouti signaling protein. The dominant, wild-type A causes the agouti shift phenomenon which causes hairs to be banded with black and red, while the recessive non-agouti or "hypermelanistic" allele, a, prevents this shift in the pigmentation pathway. In its homozygous form, aa, this results in black pigment production throughout the growth cycle of the hair. Thus, the non-agouti genotype masks or hides the tabby pattern, although sometimes a suggestion of the underlying pattern can be seen in kittens; the O allele is epistatic over the aa genotype. That is, the A to a mutation does not have a discernible effect on red or cream colored cats, resulting in these cats displaying tabby striping independent of their genotype at this locus; this explains why you can see the tabby pattern in the orange patches of non-agouti tortoiseshell cats, but not in the black or brown patches.
The primary Tabby gene, Mc/mc, sets the basic pattern of stripes. The basic wild-type tabby gene, Mc, produces what is called a mackerel striped tabby, while a recessive mutant, mc, produces a blotched or classic tabby pattern; the classic tabby is most common in Iran, Great Britain and in lands that were once part of the British Empire and Persian Empire. The gene responsible for this differential patterning has been identified as transmembrane aminopeptidase Q, which produces the king cheetah coat variant. Spotted tabbies have their stripes broken up into spots, which may be arranged vertically or horizontally. A 2010 study suggests that spotted is caused by the modification of mackerel stripes, may cause varying phenotypes such as "broken mackerel" tabbies via multiple loci
Bicolor cat
A bicolor cat or piebald cat is a cat with white fur combined with fur of some other color, for example black or tabby. There are various patterns of bicolor cat; these range from Turkish Van pattern through to solid color with a throat locket. Where there is low-to-medium grade white spotting limited to the face, paws and chest of an otherwise black cat, they are known in the United States as a tuxedo cat. High-grade bicolor results in Van-pattern cats. There are many patterns between, such as "cap-and-saddle", "mask-and-mantle" and "magpie". Bicolors are found in many cat breeds, as well as being common in domestic longhair and domestic shorthair cats. Mostly-solid-color bicolor cats occur because there is a white spotting gene present along with a recessive allele of the agouti gene, which evens out the usual striped pattern of the colors of the coat. In contrast, tabby cats have an agouti gene; the Abyssinian has agouti fur, giving the appearance of color with color-banded hairs. White spotting can occur with any of the tabby patterns, resulting in tabby-and-white bicolors.
Colorpoint cats can have bicolor points. The body markings of bicolor colorpoints become clearer with age, as the body fur of colorpoint cats darkens as the cats grow older and the white patches become more visible. Bicolor cats that are black and white are sometimes called "magpies"; the cream and white bicolor cat is the rarest of the bicolors, while the black and white or "blue" and white are the commonest. Bicoloration in cats is graded from one to ten with one being black and ten being white. There are several patterns with their own names; the cat labelled. Another type of black-and-white bicolor cat is referred to as a "cow cat" or "moo cat" and includes the magpie, cap-and-saddle and mask-and-mantle patterns. A cow cat does not have the solid black "jacket" of the tuxedo cat. Instead, it has large black patches over a white body with a black mask over the head. "Black-mask cats" are so called because they look like they are wearing a black mask over their head. The Turkish Van is one good example of a bicolor breed.
Van pattern is known to animal geneticists as the Seychelles pattern and is classified into three variants: Seychellois Neuvieme is white with colored tail and head splashes Seychellois Huitieme is white with colored tail and head splashes plus additional splashes of color on the legs Seychellois Septieme is white with splashes of color on the legs and body in addition to those on the head and the colored tailThese are high grade white spotting of types nine and seven. This coloration is not restricted to a specific breed of cat, as it can be found in many different types of pure-breed as well as mixed-breed domestic cats. However, some breeds are noted for having bicolor coats in their breed standards; these include the Turkish Van, American Shorthair, British Shorthair, Turkish Angora. In contrast, other common breeds of cat have specific coat patterns specified in their breed standards; these cats are therefore never seen in the bicolor pattern. Cats with such specific coat patterns include the Russian Blue.
The basic colors and patterns of cat fur are defined by fewer than ten genes. Cats with white color in their coats are thought to have a mutant white-spotting gene that prevents the formation of coat color in patches over the cat's body; this gene has been investigated in several species mice, is co-dominant to normal coat color as it prevents the migration of melanocytes into the developing hair follicles. The genetics of this pattern are not as well understood in cats but at least some of the genes involved in melanocyte migration and survival may play a role similar as in other animals. Three genotypes possible with the S gene, with capital S standing for a wild-type copy and lower-case s standing for the mutant. SS results in high grades of white spotting Ss results in medium grades of white spotting ss results in solid color or low grades of white spotting The lack of tabby striping in bicolor cats is controlled by the agouti protein, which inhibits the production of melanin and thus prevents the formation of dark hair colors.
In agouti cats the gene is turned on and off as the hair grows, producing hairs with alternating stripes yellow and black. In domestic cats, inactivation of the agouti gene by a deletion mutation causes all-black coat color. A tuxedo cat, or Felix cat in the United Kingdom, is a bicolor cat with a black coat, they are called "tuxedo" cats because they appear to be wearing the type of black tie formal wear known in the United States and Canada as a tuxedo. The tuxedo pattern is not limited to the color black, but the name is reserved for black and white cats. Most tuxedo cats are black-mask cats, a common name for felines who, due to their facial coloration, look as if they are wearing a black mask over their eyes, over their entire head. To be considered a true tuxedo cat, the feline's coloring should consist of a solid black coat, with white fur limited to the paws, chest and the chin, although many tuxedo cats appear to sport goatees, due to the black coloration of their mandible—that is
Havana Brown
The Havana Brown was the result of a planned breeding between Siamese and domestic black cats, by a group of cat fanciers in England, in the 1950s. Early breeders introduced a Siamese type Russian Blue into their breeding. However, using current genetic testing, it is believed that none remain in the gene pool, it has been documented that self-brown cats were shown in Europe in the 1890s, one name given to these was the Swiss Mountain Cat. These disappeared until post-World War II, with the most explanation that the Siamese Cat Club of Britain discouraged their breeding; the Swiss Mountain Cat was never used in the breeding programs of the modern Havana Brown. However, they share genetics inherited from the Siamese. In the early 1950s a group of English cat fanciers began working together with an intent to create a self brown cat of Foreign Type, they called themselves "The Havana Group" to become "The Chestnut Brown Group". This group of breeders created the foundation of the Havana Brown cat of today.
The ladies credited with this effort include Mrs. Armitage Hargreaves of Laurentide Cattery, Mrs. Munroe-Smith of Elmtower Cattery, the Baroness Von Ullmann of Roofspringer Cattery, Mrs. Elsie Fisher of Praha Cattery, Mrs. Judd of Crossways Cattery; these breeders, by selectively breeding a Siamese cat which carried the chocolate gene to a black cat that carried the chocolate gene, were able to produce chestnut colored kittens. The breed continued to develop in the UK and became known as the Chestnut Brown Oriental and retained the Siamese conformation. Early in the breeding program, two kittens were exported to Siamese breeders in the USA. Over the next decade, breeding took a different turn as genetic problems began to plague the new breed, it became necessary to utilize other breeds for genetic outcross and the phenotype began to evolve and develop into a different look than what the original breeders in England had intended. This change in direction tore apart the breeding group and caused many difficulties in continuing to progress the breed within the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy.
Soon, the Chestnut Brown cat was being produced in many colors, known just as Oriental with a numeric system to designate the coat color. In the USA, the imported kittens continued to be cross bred with the Chocolate and Seal Point Siamese, producing only Chocolate or pointed offspring, with the breeders selectively breeding for only self brown kittens. Genetic diversity resolved any defects that were seen in the early imports; the breeders in the USA desired to maintain the look of the cats that were imported and bred for brown offspring. Thus, the cats in the United States have a different look than the cats being bred in England; the American breeders did not breed for extremes. This American bred version was moderate in every way, with a rich, warm mahogany color that produced like offspring. In 1964, the Havana Brown was accepted for Championship status in the worlds largest feline registry, The Cat Fanciers Association. Early this century, a group of breeders in England again began trying to recreate the vision of the early Havana breeders.
They made good progress in isolating the chocolate genetics and were producing chocolate and pointed kittens. In 2011 a registered Havana Brown bred back to their Havana orientals; this cats contribution, along with selective breeding for type, began to direct the look of some English Havanas away from its Oriental siblings, moved them more in the direction of the Havana Brown. In June 2014 under the breed name Suffolk, this cat gained recognition by the GCCF; the alternative name was used because the GCCF uses the name Havana to refer to a self chocolate Oriental Shorthair, from which they wished to be distinguished. Although a Havana Brown is used in the breeding program of the Suffolk, they are not to be confused as the same breed; the Suffolk is much closer to the Chestnut/Havana Oriental than to the Havana Brown. The Havana Brown is a well balanced, moderately sized, muscular short-haired cat with a body of average length. Sterilized animals can tend to become somewhat chubby, they are a moderately active breed, compared to other short-hair cat breeds.
The coat color must be warm brown reddish-brown, with no obvious tabby markings. Whiskers must be brown and the eye color green; the head should be longer than wide, but should never appear like a wedge. In profile, the nose/muzzle should change in direction at the eyes. Paw pads rose colored but should never be black. Ears tend to be moderately large. A Havana Brown should have no extreme features. Males are average in weight compared with other breeds; the Havana Brown is an intelligent cat that uses its paws both to examine objects and to communicate with its owners. Curiosity brings them to the door as visitors arrive rather than preferring to be hidden as many cats will do, it is not unheard of for a Havana Brown to place paws on someone's thigh and offer a meow of introduction. It is playful and curious, but destructive unless left without companionship. While many are'lap cats', a few are more content just to sit beside their human companions. On the other hand, many Havana Browns prefer to ride on the shoulders of their human and help with daily activities.
They love to play in and groom hair - it happens so that there are Havana Brown owners who don't notice their cat doing it until it is point
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