CHOCOLATE HISTORY
History and origin of chocolate and lilac colorings
Grand-champion list of lilacs and chocolates, both with marks and entirely colored ones is still very short. Himalayans (Persian cats with Siamese color) were recognized by CFA as self-dependent breed in 1957. Later it included cats with solid colors chocolate and lilac. In following 37 years only 9 grand-champions chocolate-Points, 3 lilac-Points, one chocolate and one lilac (4 of them are from a Cactusway nursery and two - from Thailand) were registered. In 1984 Himalayans were deprived from their status of a breed and included in a Persian breed as sub-breed (Himalayan Division), and solid chocolates and lilacs have joined the main Persian breed.
Where
do chocolate and lilac colors (chocolates and lilacs) among longhaired
cats come from? They appeared due to efforts of three holders that began
independently: Brian Sterling-Webb, Briarry nursery in England; S. M.
Harding, Mingchiu nursery in England; Regina van Wessem, Siyah Gush
nursery in Holland. Later these three nurseries worked together and
mated their animals intensively. Then they imported mixed lines from
these nurseries in USA were continued inbreeding.
Briarry
Bruno was the first longhaired chocolate male cat, registered by
English cat-fancies. His father was a shorthaired chocolate that is
nowadays called "Havana Brown" in GCCF (the Governing Council of the Cat
Fancy, England). By that time his color was called a chestnut-brown.
Strong Persian type of his granddad Foxburrow Frivolous was combined
with a Siamese color distribution (color-Point) of his grandmother that
was Siamese by her mother and chestnut-brown by her father. B.
Sterling-Webb began his work with color-Points in 1947. Before him a
chocolate-Point color has been defined as undesirable among seal-Points
and have been rejected. "The color didn't inspired and wasn't realized
because of its' amazing beauty" - a famous holder Betty White said forty
years later. Only in 1950 the standard for chocolate color registration
was defined.
S.M.
Harding and B. Sterling-Webb both raise the first longhaired lilac cat
Mingchiu Lilac? A cat derived from Briatty Bruno. The first lilac-Point
in English list, the Mingchiu Sula Three - the great-granddaughter of
Briatty Bruno was also the result of cooperation of Harding and
Sterling-Webb. It is the mixed line of chocolates/lilacs, the result of
cooperation of two English nurseries that have appeared in USA for the
first time and was subjected to a subsequent inbreeding.
At that time Regina van Wessem, independently of English holders have raised her own line of longhaired chocolates and lilacs. In Holland the black longhaired male cat was received as a result of breeding of a female of an unknown genotype and blue-eyed white Persian cat and then it was mate to his mother. This resulted in a Siyah Gush Cheng Sen, a brown longhaired cat. After Regina van Wessem's death, the Hoog Moersbergen nursery kept up her work. The Holland line had somewhat another, darker chocolate tint than Briarry/ Minghiu but the better type. This line has also appeared in America at the beginning of 70ths. One of the most famous cats in the chocolate line is Willem van Hoog Moersbergen. It's the combination of Briarry/Mingchiu and Siyah Gush lines as a single Hoog Moersbergen. Thus, American holders have received both English and Holland lines along with a combination of Holland and English (1969-1973).
Phenotype and genotype of chocolates and lilacs
The exhibition standard CFA defines the chocolate color of solid colored Persians in a following way: "Rich, warm, chocolate-brown, expressed along from the root to the tip of hair", the tip of nose should and pads should be brown. Chocolate-Point should have an ivory colored body with no darkening, and spots of a "milk chocolate color of a soft tone", tip of nose and pads are brown-pink. As a matter of fact there're two kinds of chocolate, or brown color, controlled by two different mutations of gene Black (B): brown mutation (b) provides dark-brown tint, and brownl (bl) mutation - light brown. Both colors are acceptable, if they are "rich and warm".
The
lilac color of solid-colored Persians is described as having "a rich,
warm, pale-lilac with a pink tint" hair color; the tip of nose and pads
should be pink. Lilac-Point should have a "white with a frosty coating"
color with no darkening, spots - "gray with frosty coating and pinkish
tint"; a tip of nose and pads are coral pink. The last is a very
delicate and is hard to percept. One needs an appropriate illumination
to note an adorable pinkish tint. "But when you see this tint in the
rays of sun you are really amazed!" - B. Fox exclaims.
Chocolate
gene brown, or b (as well as a dilute gene, or d, controlling for a
blue coloring) is recessive. It displays itself when is double-dosed
(bb), that is passed from both parents.. Considering a recessive
character of genes of rare colorings and turning to Persian
color-Points, B. Fox writes: "Everybody knows that Himalayan cats have
the many recessive genes: longhair is recessive to shorthair, color with
spots - towards even color. And now if one to add here the recessive
lilac and chocolate genes he will understand how difficult is to grow a
real grand-champion of such color and how long and laborious is this
work".
It's impossible to get a lilac or chocolate phenotype if only one of parents carries the combination of genes of this color. The presence of the gene in both parents is obligatory condition for a chocolate colored litter. If only one of parents has a chocolate gene, then the offspring will merely be carriers of this gene and won't have this marvelous color.
Harder
task is to receive a lilac-colored cat. Lilac is a chocolate that
carries another double set of a dilute (dd) gene, controlling for a blue
coloring.
Hence, both parents must possess both genes of chocolate and blue color. If one is to get a lilac cat, he should mate a blue female, carrying a chocolate gene, and a chocolate male, carrying a "blue" gene, and vice versa. At that, only one of four kittens on average will have a desirable lilac color, in the case of bbdd combination (that means that there may not be a lilac kitten in a given litter at all). The same may result from a mating of two blue animals, carrying a chocolate gene, for instance, mating of brother and sister, born from a blue female and chocolate male.
Unfortunately,
because pale-colored seal-Points, especially young ones, occur often
many "false" chocolate-Points have been registered that are not appear
to be real genetically. Sometimes this can be explained by a deep desire
of a folder to have and exhibit an animal of a rare color. This results
in a big mishmash, wrong pedigrees, involuntary deceptions of customers
and following disappointments. How to distinguish a chocolate-Point
form a seal-Point? A chocolate-Point has an "incomplete mask", as if
it's not fully developed: color of muzzle and ears don't merge together
as in seal-Point. The hair on the trunk should be paler, than in a
seal-Point, and limbs should be chocolate. If the coloring is correct
than the hair color turns from white into chocolate smoothly. Pads
should be pink and on no account dark.
About the cholocate gene carriers
As a whole, chocolate-Points differ remarkably from seal-Points by a more light color of body - they don't get dark (or get dark not to that extent) as seal-Points when grow old. This makes their color more contrasting and more striking, then in seal-Points. Lilac-Points also have a white color of body that never turns gray with the time as in the case of many blue-Points. In connection with a peculiar feature of a chocolate gene to "decolorize" the background color of body, digressing from the B. Fox's article we want give some additional information for holders. It concerns Himalayas - chocolate gene carriers, that is animals with Bbcscs genotype.
First
of all, let's turn to an acknowledged authority on genetics and cat
colors, R.Ribson: "The locus of brown color is represented by two mutant
alleles, denoted as b - brown - and bl - light-brown. Heterozygosity by
these two alleles causes considerable reduction of color intensity of
granules in comparison with norm" (C. O'Bryan, Z. Robinson et all, Cat
genetics. Novosybirssk: "Nayka", 1993, c.47-48). What does this really
mean?
A
pair of cscs genes controls for a Himalayan (color-Point) phenotype.
Considering the recession of a chocolate gene b (or bl), pigment in
chocolate gene carriers (Bbcscs) is formed in concordance with the
presence of a dominant gene B, that is, black, not brown. Hence, this
gives a seal-point. However this is a, so-called, incomplete dominance.
As a result, an animal with this color carrying the recessive chocolate
gene b is slightly paler than a typical seal-point with BBcscs genotype.
This makes them very attractive for holders who breed lilacs and
chocolates, and exhibition-fanciers cosiness-lovers as well. As noted
above, the main drawback of many seal-points is darkening of hair when
they grow up. The color doesn't become contrasting but with a dark-brown
mask on the light-brown background, or just brown. The hair of the
chocolate gene carriers stays paler, as a rule, and, thus, the contrast
of a seal-point color remains.
The same should be said about the chocolate gene carriers, "dilute", blue ones that have Bbcscsdd genotype. Blue-point animals with this phenotype have more light nearly white body, mask stays blue and sometimes with a lilac tint. Often these animals are called carriers of a lilac gene, though it's not correct genetically: such a single gene doesn't exist, and the lilac phenotype (lilac-point) is determined by a combination of two couples of chocolate and "blue" (dilute) genes. A lilac-point cat in fact is a blue-point cat with a couple of chocolate genes. Blue-point cat with a single chocolate gene has a blue-point color improved by a dilution of a gray background of body.