When I first started breeding French Bulldogs, I only knew to send everything to UCDavis and learned to interpret those results. As other testing companies formed and began providing results, I was overwhelmed by how many reporting styles there were for the same thing! Of course, each company wants to differentiate themselves from the others, so sort, format and created reporting styles where some became extremely difficult to interpret unless you already knew how to interpret them. I did not find that useful! One company has a report with so many pages (that you have to print out yourself), and with non-relevant data (to me) that I am certain I will only use UC Davis from here on out. After thinking I was saving money with one company, I received unclear data and no fluffy data (which is what I needed). I then had to send the dna to Another company to get that done; effectively not saving me any money at all! So, let’s get to the real info!
Every trait for a puppy is made up of 2 pairings. One is passed from the dam and the other from the sire. Sometimes, you need 2 copies of recessive genes and other times they will display a trait or color with just one dominant gene. There is the health panel as well as the color panel. Even though the health panel is the most important, people are usually interested in the color panel. The color panel is made of up color and patterns.
There are apps you can install on your smartphone to help you with this. I use ColorMyFrenchie and, even though it doesn’t have all the possibilities, it is great tool to use.
Patterns:
A-Locus
The A-Locus has three possible options called alleles. They are Ay (Fawn), At (Tan), and a (solid). The report you receive will typically show both genes together such as Ay/At or individually such as (AT 1 copy, Ay 1 copy, a – no copies). There will always be two alleles reported.
Ay is dominant and the Frenchie will be Fawn. The only exception to this is if the K-locus (brindle) is present then the At Fawn gene will not show. If the at gene is present with the a, then the At (tan point) is dominant and the Frenchie will have tan points. A Solid ‘a” gene required both copies to be present for the puppy to be solid.
B-Locus
This is called Brown or Testable Chocolate and works along side the other genes that can create Isabelle. The gene is Recessive and requires two copies for the puppy to visually display the testable chcolate color. It appears as b/b. B/b means the puppy is a carrier. B/B means the puppy does not carry the gene.
Cocoa
This used to be called untestable chocolate, but is now called cocoa. This is a different shade of brown when compared to the B-locus. When combined with other visible colors, it also looks different. Cocoa is a recessive requiring both copies to produce the color cocoa.
N/N or COCO – puppy does not carry cocoa
N/co – puppy is a carrier but is not visually cocoa.
coco (2 copies) – puppy is visually cocoa.
D-Locus
This is the Blue gene and is responsible for REDUCING the saturation of coat color. Alone, it creates a blue Frenchie. When combined with other colors, it creates lilacs and Isabellas.
D/D or N/N – gene is not present
D/d puppy is a carrier but is not visually blue.
d/d – puppy will display the dilute blue color.
E-Locus
This is the Cream gene and is responsible for creating cream, white or white/yellow Frenchies. To be visual, there must be two copies of e and if present it is dominant over all other colors and patterns. This locus can also be Em which is a dark mask around the mouth. Some reports you may receive split the copies in between E and Em, but you still have to have two copies. There can be a combination of this gene to create the mask and/or the white or cream base. This was pretty confusing to me as I had a visually black puppy and was told it was a cream covered in black. To a beginner, he just looked black to me! But he is a trindle and indeed has the cream genes. But his black is rare and dominant over cream. It gets better!
K-Locus
This is the gene for Black and Brindle and is displayed differently, depending on the testing company you use. However, anytime a copy is present, the puppy will display it. There are only Two allels – Kbr Brindle and By (black).
S-Locus
This is the gene for Piebald and/or Spotting. This gene requires two copies to be visual and it will randomly remove pigment which creates large areas of a different color. Both copies are required in French Bulldogs to display the trait visually.
Merle
This is a Pattern, not a color. Merle Fr3encies visually show random spotting or mottling. Merle is dominant so only one copy is needed. Anytime two copies of Merle are present, it can indicate a prevalence for hearing and vision problems, so you never breed two merles.
Long-Hair
This gene is responsible for Fluffies. These long-haired or Fluffy French Bulldogs requires two copies of this gene to visually be Fluffy.
Intensity
This gene is connected to the saturation of the yellow/red, which creates a dilution. Currently it is believed to impact coat color when both copies are present.
*This information was obtained via interviews with the testing department at UC Davis, California. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain how to interpret the dna of my Last Best Frenchies!