Importance of Bitches? - Page 4

So to break this down a bit, for a puppy (every single GSD was a puppy at one point in time !), his/her mother/dam contributes more (than the father/sire) to what the puppy will become, since the dam contributes 50% of the puppy's genetic material and also environmentally imprints the puppy with her reactions to various stimuli during the core period when the puppy's brain is developing and seeing and experiencing the world for the first time (the nurture part).   She is not going to change the genetics the puppy is born with, but she will possibly influence the way the puppy will react to a variety of stimuli for the rest of the puppy's life, due to the environmental imprinting received during this core period.  

On the other hand, if one were to look at the breed as a whole, the males have an out-sized influence in this sphere, since they determine the direction the breed takes, due to the sheer numbers of progeny that issues out of multiple females that they mate with, within a relatively shorter time-span.  The "founder effect" so to say.  So when a few "flavor of the day" males are chosen for a disproportionate number of breedings, the genetic diversity gets severely curtailed (large number of desirable features that are literal signatures of the breed get lost for ever), and the breed gets frog-marched in a direction that may not be entirely desirable (as stated above, the roach-backs, the severely slopey backs, the severe rear angulation, weaker temperament etc, which were never a hallmark of the breed just a few generations back, but are now pretty much considered as what one expects from a "modern GSD").

Both sire and dam contribute equally (genetically, in nuclear DNA) to female offspring but the dam contributes slightly more than the sire to male offspring.  The Y chromosome has much less genetic information than the X.

ETA: The non nuclear DNA also has a contribution to cell metabolism, energy production etc... and this comes almost exclusively from the dam.

I have a litter on the way: http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/breeding.result?father=473094&mother=544018



  

BOTH parental lines are++ important++.. however scientifically a mother has a GREATER impact in many many ways..  Check out some research on any mamal you may be surprised to learn more of  the impact both in utero and after birth the mother, her health, temperment and treatment  on offspring have. It is now evident DNA can actually be alterd by enviormental factors and happenings...we have MUCH to learn and it is always interesting to listen and learn from others experiences. Good post intersting subject matter.
Debi

@Wanderer -
A quick look at Yoschy's many progeny shows a number of good-looking, well titled,
dogs AND bitches - so that gives the lie to the 'old wives tale' for a start.  If the Kor
instruction to use Yoschy lines on this bitch has been complied with, that seems to
increase the chances of a good grounding for successful pups, just to start.
Am now going off to look up these two themselves, will comment further later.

Ok.am back.  You appear not to have done that, wanderer, I don't see Yoshy anywhere
behind him ?   Having looked at that element, turning to the sire himself, he seems to
have been quite a busy lad;  and there are some decent hips, titles etc on his progeny,
once again spread between both sexes, although not all the details have been put on
for them yet, looks like.
Apart from Boomer, there's not much to go on yet from her one litter ... 

A lot of interesting, thought-provoking posts! If what pod and Debi said about genetic contribution/changes is correct, then wouldn't females be more important then males in terms of how the litter turns out? I wonder if the 'environmental factors' Debi mentions is something that we could even control...?

Wanderer, if you'll notice I did not say "Yes or No" to the question, but stated instead "A possible influencing factor..."  So really, you're not "begging to differ" at all, since I made no stance about the subjective quality of whatever outcome "good" means to the inquirer.

Pod, it cannot be proven that the size of the chromosome matters in any respect, although there are many more characteristics that have been identified as "x-factored".  Besides, female progeny would receive an equal sized X-chromosome from their sire.  And, I suppose the males would have more "diversity", having obtained one of each type, ha ha.

Daryl, ok I've just done a very quick search and found one ref that states that the canine X is over 80% larger than Y.  It certainly matters when considering conditions like haemophilia, X linked PRA etc, where the dam not only has double the chance of passing on the defect gene, but also passing it on unseen.  There may be many more traits including physiological, behavioural etc, that we know nothing about, located in the extended arm of the X chromosome.

Nope sorry, you're diversity point doesn't work.  The section of the XY chromosomes that does match up has the same genes, just as in any autosome. So no extra diversity.  In fact the female has the extra "diversity".... about 80% of one chromosome... he he.

That is very educating Pod, thank you for sharing

So, you're point is... the female "contibutes more" diseases?   All I'm saying is the QUANITY of genetic information says nothing about the QUALITY.  More or less does not matter.  You cannot have a complete organism without the participance of both genders.  ha.