Tabby coat colour

The tabby coat colour is characterised by distinctive patterns resembling spirals or ovals, which are concentrated mainly on the sides of the body, on the back and around the shoulders. On the forehead the cat has the typical "M" like all tabby cats.

This phenotype is caused by three different mutations (c.176C>A, c.682G>A, c.2522G>A) in the gene for laeverin (LVRN), which affects the distribution of dark and light pigment in the skin.

The inheritance of this mutation is autosomal recessive. This means that it only occurs in an individual who has inherited the mutated allele from both parents (recessive homozygote). The tabby locus has four alleles, which have the following dominance hierarchy: non-tabby T^a (unpatterned agouti, also called Abyssinian or ticked); T^s (spotted tabby); T^M (mackerel tabby); t^b (blotched tabby). The resulting coat colour will therefore correspond to the more dominant allele.

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References:

Kaelin, C.B., Xu, X., Hong, L.Z., David, V.A., McGowan, K.A., Schmidt-Küntzel, A., Roelke, M.E., Pino, J., Pontius, J., Cooper, G.M., Manuel, H., Swanson, W.F., Marker, L., Harper, C.K., van Dyk, A., Yue, B., Mullikin, J.C., Warren, W.C., Eizirik, E., Kos, L., O'Brien, S.J., Barsh, G.S., Menotti-Raymond, M. : Specifying and sustaining pigmentation patterns in domestic and wild cats. Science 337:1536-41, 2012. Pubmed reference: 22997338