Calico Colours

This beautiful moggy is a calico cat, and animals with this kind of blotchy fur patterning are thought to bring good luck in many cultures around the world. But as well as looking pretty, the calico cat’s coat can tell us a lot about genetics. Virtually all calico cats are female, meaning they carry two X chromosomes while male cats have an X and a Y. To compensate for this double dosage, one X chromosome is randomly switched off in every cell as a female kitten grows in the womb. The orange and black fur colour genes are also carried on the X chromosomes, and if a female cat inherits one ‘orange’ and one ‘black’ X chromosome, the colours will be randomly switched off too, giving the characteristic calico pattern. The white blotches come from a gene on another chromosome, but that’s a different tale (or tail?) altogether.

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

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Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media.

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• Originally published under a GNU Free Documentation License