Glossary: A-G
A B C D E F G H-Q R-Z
AGGREGATE BREEDING VALUE: Also net merit. The breeding value of an individual for a combination of traits.
AGOUTI: Thought to be a locus on the chromosome where color occurs. Sometimes also called the wild or natural color gene (this would be vicuna color in alpacas).
ALLELE: An alternative form of a gene.
ALTIPLANO: The high plateau in southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia located around Lake Titicaca.
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION (AI): A reproductive technology in which semen is collected from males, then used in fresh or frozen form to breed females.
ARTIFICIAL SELECTION: Selection that is under human control.
AYLLOS: Small remote Peruvian communities of Indian shepherds.
BACKCROSSING:(1) The mating of a hybrid to a purebred of a parent breed or line. (2) The mating of an individual (purebred or hybrid) to any other individual (purebred or hybrid) with which it has one or more ancestral breeds or lines in common.
BASE POPULATION: The population of animals whose parents are either unknown or ignored for the purposes of inbreeding and relationship calculation. Typically the individuals appearing at the back of the pedigrees of the original animals in a herd or flock.
BC1: Backcross one. The first generation of crosses between hybrids and-purebreds of a parent breed or line.
BERSERK MALE: A male who was afforded too much affection by humans as a cria and shows no fear of them as an adult.
BIOLOGICAL TYPE: A classification for animals with similar genotypes for traits of interest. Examples include heavy draft types (horses), prolific wool types (sheep), large dual-purpose types (cattle), and tropically adapted types (many species).
BIOTECHNOLOGY: The application of biological knowledge to practical needs. Often refers to (1) technologies for altering reproduction, or (2) technologies for locating, identifying, comparing, or otherwise manipulating genes.
BLANKET: The highest quality fleece which begins at the shoulder, runs the full length of the back and down each side until it meets the more medulated fiber on the belly. Excludes neck, leg, chest, belly, and britch. The term originated from the image of a horse's saddle blanket.
BLOODLINE: Breeder's term that alludes to pedigree.
BREED: A race of animals within a species. Animals of the same breed usually have a common origin and similar identifying characteristics.
BREEDING OBJECTIVE: (1) A weighted combination of traits defining aggregate breeding, value for use in an economic selection index. (2) A general goal for a breeding program -- a notion of what constitutes the best animal.
BREEDING VALUE: (1) The value of an individual as a (genetic) parent. (2) The part of an individual's genotypic value that is due to independent and therefore transmittable gene effects.
BREED TRUE: Alpacas breed true if two parents with a particular, simply inherited phenotype produce offspring of that same phenotype exclusively.
BREED TYPE: The look of an alpaca.
BUNDLED STAPLES: A grouping of microstaples that together form a larger staple. The formation of the microstaples is determined by the arrangement and density of the follicles in the skin. Bundling is said to be an indicator of a dense fleece, due to the evenness of follicle size and consistency of shape in the skin. (Cameron Holt, Private Correspondence.)
BURNING: Removing vegetable matter from fiber during processing through the use of chemicals.
CAMPESINO: An agrarian peasant of Peru.
CARDING: The final cleaning process, accomplished by either hand or machine, through which alpaca fiber goes before spinning.
CHACU: A vicuna drive or capture that originated with the Incas.
CHARACTERISTIC: A specific phenotypic trait, such as crimp or fineness.
CHROMOSOME: One of a number of long strands of DNA and associated proteins present in the nucleus of every cell.
CH'UMPI: Quechua word for the color sorrel.
CLOSE INBREEDING: A measure of the degree of relationship between ancestors. The more the relationship, the closer the inbreeding.
CLOSED NUCLEUS BREEDING SCHEME: A nucleus breeding scheme in which germ plasma flows in only one direction - from the nucleus to cooperating herds or flocks.
CLOSED POPULATION: A population that is closed to genetic material from the outside.
CO-EFFICIENT OF VARIATION (cv): The variation around the mean expressed as a percentage.
COLLATERAL RELATIVES: Relatives that are neither direct ancestors nor direct descendants of an individual--siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews.
COLOR GENES: Genes which determine an alpaca's coat color.
CORRECTIVE MATING: The mating of alpacas that is intended to correct faults. For example; mating a dam with a bad bite to a stud with a good bite.
CRIA: A camelid less than one year old.
CRIMP: The regular undulation along the length of an individual fiber or lock of fiber. A higher number of crimps per inch can indicate a finer fiber.
CROSSING OVER: A reciprocal exchange of chromosome segments between homologues. Crossing over occurs during meiosis prior to the time the homologous chromosomes are separated to form gametes.
CULLING: The process that determines which animals in a herd will not be bred.
DAM: A female parent.
DEGREE OF BACKCROSSING: The proportion of an alpaca's loci at which both genes of a pair trace to the same ancestral breed or line.
DILUTION GENES: A modifier gene which visibly dilutes the expression of existing pigment, i.e., a fawn-colored animal which is diluted to the point of expressing itself as white.
DIRECT RESPONSE TO SELECTION: Genetic change in a trait resulting from selection for that trait.
DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule that forms the genetic code.
DNA FINGERPRINTING: A laboratory method for graphically characterizing an individual's DNA, creating a unique genetic "fingerprint."
DOMINANCE: An interaction between genes at a single locus such that, in heterozygotes, one allele has more effect than the other. The allele with the greater effect is dominant over its recessive counterpart.
DYSTOCIA: Difficulty in giving birth or being born.
ECONOMIC SELECTION INDEX: An index or combination of weighting factors and genetic information - either phenotypic data or genetic predictions - on more than one trait. Economic selection indexes are used in multiple-trait selection to predict aggregate breeding value.
EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE: The size of a population as reflected by its rate of inbreeding.
EGG CELL: Gamete.
EMBRYO: An organism in the early stages of development in the shell (bird) or uterus (mammal).
EMBRYO TRANSFER: A reproductive technology in which embryos from donor females are collected and transferred in fresh or frozen form to recipient females.
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT: The effect that external (nongenetic) factors have on animal performance.
ENVIRONMENTAL TREND: Change in the mean performance of a population over time caused by changes in environment.
EPISTASIS: An interaction among genes at different loci such that the expression of genes at one locus depends on the alleles present at one or more other loci.
ESTANCIA: A medium-sized farming property in single ownership, comparable to a western United States ranch.
ESTIMATED BREEDING VALUE: A prediction of a breeding value. See breeding value.
EUMELANIN: See melanin.
EXTENSION LOCUS: Thought to be a locus on the chromosome where color occurs or is modified.
F1: The first generation of crosses between two unrelated (though not necessarily purebred) populations.
F1 HYBRID VIGOR: The amount of hybrid vigor attainable in first-cross individuals.
F2: The generation of crosses produced by mating F1 (first-cross) individuals among themselves.
FAMILY: A group of related individuals within a population, most often applied to half-sib and full-sib families, but which can be applied to less related groups including all descendants of a particular ancestor.
FERTILITY: The ability of a female to conceive or of a male to impregnate.
FINENESS: A measure, in microns, of the diameter of individual fibers. Most often expressed as an average for a representative sample of fiber.
FITNESS: (1) The ability of an individual and its corresponding phenotype and genotype to contribute offspring to the next generation. (2) The number of offspring an individual produces, not just its ability to be selected.
FITNESS TRAIT: A trait selected for by natural selection. Fitness traits relate to an animal's ability to survive and reproduce.
FIXATION: The point at which a particular allele becomes the only allele at its locus in a population - the frequency of the allele becomes one.
FLEECE WEIGHT: The weight of an entire fleece measured at the same time each season.
GAMETE: A sex cell; a sperm or egg.
GAMETE SELECTION: The process that determines which egg matures and which sperm succeeds in fertilizing the egg.
GENE: The basic physical unit of heredity consisting of a DNA sequence at a specific location on a chromosome.
GENE FREQUENCY: Also allelic frequency. The relative frequency of a particular allele in a population.
GENE LINKAGE: The occurrence of two or more loci of interest on the same chromosome.
GENE MAP: Also a linkage map or chromosome map. A diagram showing the chromosomal locations of specific genetic markers and genes of interest.
GENERATION INTERVAL: (1) The amount of time required to replace one generation with the next. (2) In a closed population, the average age of parents when their selected offspring are born.
GENETIC CORRELATION: (1) A measure of the strength (consistency, reliability) of the relationship between breeding values for one trait and breeding values for another trait. (2) A measure of pleiotropy (the production of change in more than one trait).
GENETIC MARKER: A detectable gene or DNA fragment used to identify alleles at a linked locus.
GENETIC MERIT: The accumulative positive genotype of an individual animal or herd which can be passed onto progeny.
GENETIC PREDICTION: The area of academic animal breeding concerned with measurement of data, statistical procedures, and computational techniques for predicting breeding values and related values.
GENETIC TREND: Change in the mean breeding value of a population over time.
GENETIC VARIATION: In the context of the key equation for genetic change, variability of breeding values within a population for a trait under selection.
GENOTYPE: (1) The genetic makeup of an individual. (2) The combination of genes at a single locus or at a number of loci. Geneticists speak of one-locus genotypes, two-locus genotypes, and so on.
GENOTYPIC VALUE: The effect of an individual's genes (singly and in combination) on its performance for a trait.
GERM CELL: A sex cell; a sperm or egg; a gamete.
GERM PLASMA: Genetic material in the form of live animals, semen, or embryos.
GRADING-UP: Also topcrossing. (1) A mating system designed to create a purebred population by mating successive generations of non-purebred females to purebred sires. (2) A mating system designed to convert a population from one breed to another by mating successive generations of females descended from the first breed to sires of the second breed.
GREASY ALPACA FLEECE: A commercial term identifying unwashed alpaca fleece.
GUANACO: A wild member of the New World camelidae family, Lama gunaimicoe.
GUARD HAIR: Also kemp. Coarse medulated fiber. A second coat of fiber found in llamas, vicuna, guanacos, and, to a lesser degree, alpacas.
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