Jacob’s Livestock Breeding Experiment

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Dr C delves into a difficult passage that deals with some improbable breeding experiments done by the Patriarch Jacob in Genesis 30 and 31. Some claim the genetics is all wrong. Others claim Jacob believed in magic. Neither is the case.

Links:

• Jacob’s livestock: a biblical example of applied genetics.
• Aaron, D.K., Basic Sheep Genetics, casey.ca.uky.edu/files/asc220_basic_sheep_genetics.pdf.
• Norris B.J. and Whan, V.A., A gene duplication affecting expression of the ovine ASIP gene is responsible for white and black sheep, Genome Res. 18(8):1282–93, 2008.
• Fan, R., et al., Skin transcriptome profiles associated with coat color in sheep, BMC Genomics 14:389, 2013.
• Peng, Y., et al., Skin transcriptome profiles associated with coat color in goat, biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/028340v1.

Intro Music by Xihcsr
Intro Graphics by MattWalkerVideo