Mapping the Suri Coat Phenotype

Principal investigator:

Andrew Merriwether, PhD
Binghamton University

It is of considerable interest to Suri breeders to know whether the animals they are breeding are homozygous or heterozygous for the Suri coat allele. This was a pilot study that used the STR marker panel developed by Warren Johnson, National Cancer Institute, as part of the Alpaca Genome Project to test the feasibility of conducting a classical linkage study to locate the Suri coat phenotype gene and allele. The study provided preliminary data to support the feasibility of locating the gene and developing a PCR based test for the Suri allele that will be of use to the industry.