Modifier genes are the type of genes which affect how other genes are expressed. Orange allele also interacts with modifier genes which decide the intensity of orange tabby coloring. In tortoiseshell/calico cats, which are almost always female, the orange allele is expressed differently because of the process called the “X inactivation”, when parts of two X chromosomes get activated and inactivated in a random manner. It is also epistatic: it replaces a black pigment eumelanin with pheomelanin (yellow/orange) (2). An orange allele is dominant over solid colors (non-agouti). Obviously an orange tabby, or as some say “ginger cat” or “red tabby”, has tabby markings, therefore, it is a tabby cat. Although not sure what the “regular tabby” means, the agouti gene responsible for “brown” tabbies, cannot produce the orange tabbies and tortoiseshell/calico cats without a help from another gene. Mass Image Compressor Compressed this image. Orange tabby is different from the “regular tabby” So a white cat could be a tabby even if its coat looks completely white. So a cat only appears solid white, but other colors and patterns do not disappear and may appear in its future kittens. “W” gene is epistatic: it ignores what color alleles and tabby patterns a cat may have by suppressing them all (3). White coat results from the dominant white gene “W” which is very different from non-agouti. The white coat appears as much solid colored like a coat of the black cat does it mean that white cats produce only white kittens? In most of the cases, yes, but white cats can have colored kittens unlike a/a black cats. Cats with A/a can have both tabby and black kittens. Solid colored cats only produce black kittens (3). Genetically speaking, all cats are tabbies – even those carrying a combination of recessive “a/a” alleles and having no visible tabby patterns. Phenotypes of agouti and non-agouti (solid black). Photo credits: İsmail Michael, Melissa Maples (Antalya) This gene is probably not native to the Near Eastern cats, therefore we will only concentrate on melanistic black. However, the black coat can also be created by the different gene called B (“brown”), whose recessive versions make a cat’s coat brown (10). Black coat or in another name melanism, arose from the mutation in agouti signalling protein ASIP (11). A cat with two copies of alleles “a/a” is non-agouti, meaning it has a solid coat with no tabby markings – a black cat (3,7). The name of the gene responsible for tabby patterns is agouti or simply “A” gene. The most ancient coat color the cat: “brown” mackerel tabby. Due to optical illusion created by the combination of black and yellow pigments these tabbies appear to be brown (6). A “brown” mackerel tabby could be described as coat with black or greyish stripes on yellow background, sometimes with an orange hue. This is how the ancestor Felis lybica lybicalooked like (former name: Felis silvestris lybica 8). The most ancient coat color and pattern of domestic cat is a “brown” mackerel tabby. There are two pigments that give colors to the cat’s coat: pheomelanin (yellow to orange) and eumelanin (from brown to black). Tabby genes alter the shape and the size of markings, they have no effect on color of the cat (1). No, tabby is not a color.It is a coat pattern. By using science and color genetics we explain why these prevalent beliefs are a complete nonsense. In this article we gathered the most popular and stubborn myths about tabby cats floating in Internet space (and beyond) which simply won’t go away. You may feel tempted to click such a headline – don’t. So many websites provide with “ interesting/fun facts about tabby cats”. But what do we really know about tabby cats? Many cats have the patterns on their coats– we call them “tabbies”.
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