Maine Coon Genetics Continued….

There are several things that influence the overall coloration/pattern of a cat.  We will start with White. We use “gene” and “allele” in this. Think of the gene as the instructions inside of DNA and the allele as the outcome. You can have different outcomes like base color, pattern, or eye color. It depends on the alleles that you inherit from your parents.

 

Phenotype= What we see.

Genotype= What they are genetically

White Maine Coons are not actually white, genetically speaking. Imagine a white cat like a child wearing a sheet on Halloween. You pull the sheet off to see who (what color) is underneath! White is inherited by a dominant SINGLE “W” gene that mask all other colors. Meaning they have a hidden base color which sometimes can be revealed by a small spot on the head. The dark spot generally will fade as the kitten grows. White is the Phenotype but their Genotype will be some other color.

The “W” (white) allele is a Dominate single trait meaning you can only get white offspring if a parent is white. It would look like this W/-. Offspring will either inherit “W” or “(-) = nothing.”  White can not be carried in offspring that are not white. White cats can have blue, green, copper, or odd eyes (two different colors).  Fully white cats need BAER testing for deafness.  Blue eyed white cats have a higher risk of deafness because the W gene can also affect the inner ear development.  Dominate white cats are NOT albino, which involves a complete lack of pigment and different genetics. White cats and the white spotting gene are different and we will get to that later.

 

But wait…you said MALES ARE ALWAYS THE COLOR OF MOM yet my white male bred with my black female and we got a white boy. YEP! Your white boy is black. His Phenotype is white. White is not a color, it’s just a mask.

 

THE MOMENT MOST OF YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR…..

Smoke: Solid color (a/a) plus silver roots (I/i or I/I)

Silver: Tabby pattern (A/a or A/A) plus silver banding on hairs (I/i or I/I)

Inheritance of the silver gene which is also called the inhibitor (hence why it is designated with an (I)…. here we go…Silver is shown as “ I ” while lack of silver will be “ i “.  The silver gene inhibits red/yellow pigment creating the silvery look by whitening the base of the hair. It should be noted that with tabby cats the inhibitor gene is expressed and referred to as “silver,” however with a solid cat the inhibitor is referred to as “smoke.” Same gene just worded different (for some reason) with tabbies and solids.  The inhibitor (silver) gene is a dominate gene. We have learned that with a dominate gene, the kitten only needs to inherit one “I “to have the inhibitor gene expressed.  So, we can have the following:

I/I = Homozygous for inhibitor (will be silver/smoke) Will pass ( I ) to 100% of kittens.

I/i = Heterozygous for inhibitor (will be silver/smoke) Will pass ( I ) to 50% of kittens.

i/i = Will not be silver/smoke. Will not pass the inhibitor gene.

** Cats that are Homozygous for the inhibitor will generally show a more intense silvering with less tarnishing**

Tarnishing is the brown color we sometimes see on silvers, smokes and blacks.  There are other causes of tarnishing as well.

HOW MUCH SILVER WILL THEY HAVE???

Now let us see if we can get confused a bit!  In the silver series we can add the “Wide Band” effect. The wide band is responsible for widening the agouti (tabby) bands of the hair shaft. Think of the inhibitor (silver) gene as turning the hair white/silver from the base up, and the wide band gene as deciding how much of that silver/white will show in the tabby bands. The wide band gene does not affect solid cats…they do not have tabby bands to be widened. The wide band gene is still not fully understood (I believe). It has been called recessive and it has been called dominate. It is also believed that there are many different genes that affect it. So, before anyone gets too excited and points out contradicting research…I know it is out there. This is what I believe to be true from my research. From experience in my own breeding cats, I believe the wide band to be dominate. So here is what we think we know…

This creates the following:

 wb/wb – No effect. Regular tabby banding.

Wb/wb- SHADED SILVER- ¼ to ½ color tipping on hair shaft (depending on who you ask).

Wb/Wb- SHELL SILVER- 1/8 to 1/4 color tipping on hair shaft (depending on who you ask).

See examples below of these as written by CFA. No these are not all the variations.

Wb/wb – SHADED SILVER: Undercoat pure white with a mantle of black tipping shading down from sides, face, and tail from dark on the ridge to white on the chin, chest, stomach, and under the tail. Legs to be the same tone as the face. The general effect to be much darker than a chinchilla. Rims of eyes, lips and nose outlined with black. Nose leather: Brick red. Paw pads: Black

• Wb/wb- SHADED BLUE SILVER: Undercoat white with a mantle of blue tipping shading down from sides, face, and tail from dark on the ridge to white on the chin, chest, stomach, and under the tail. Legs to be the same tone as the face. The general effect to be much darker than a blue chinchilla. Rims of eyes, lips and nose outlined with blue. Nose leather and paw pads: Rose desireable.

• Wb/wb- SHADED CAMEO (RED SHADED): Undercoat white with a mantle of red tipping shading down the sides, face, and tail. Face and legs may be a deeper shading than the rest of the body. Chin, ear furnishings, stomach, and chest (ruff) to be white. The general effect to be much redder than the shell cameo. Nose leather, rims of eyes and paw pads: Rose

• Wb/wb- SHADED CREAM: Same description as red with red being replaced with cream.

Wb/wb – CHINCHILLA SILVER: Undercoat pure white. Coat on back, flanks, head, and tail sufficiently tipped with black to give the characteristic sparking silver appearance. Legs may be slightly shaded with tipping. Chin, ear tufts, stomach, and chest pure white. Rims of eyes, lips, and nose outlined with black. Nose leather: Brick red. Paw pads: Black

• Wb/wb- CHINCHILLA BLUE SILVER- Undercoat white. Coat on back, flanks, head, and tail sufficiently tipped with blue to give the characteristic sparkling silver appearance. Legs may be slightly shaded with tipping. Chin, ear tufts, stomach, and chest, pure white Rims of eyes, lips and nose outlined with blue. Nose leather and paw pads: Rose desired.

WB/WB - SHELL CAMEO (RED CHINCHILLA): Undercoat white, the coat on the back, flanks, head, and tail to be sufficiently tipped with red to give the characteristic sparkling appearance. Face and legs may be very slightly shaded with tipping. Chin, ear tufts, stomach, and chest white. Nose leather, rims of eyes and paw pads: Rose

• WB/WB- SHELL CREAM (CREAM CHINCHILLA): Undercoat white, the coat on the back, flanks, head, and tail to be lightly tipped with cream. Face and legs may be very slightly shaded with tipping. Chin, ear furnishings, stomach, and chest (ruff) to be white. Nose leather, rims of eyes and paws: Rose

 

This was a lot of information. I can not cover everything in a single post so yes for those of you that are versed in this…there is more to it.  I am trying to keep a complicated subject from being impossible.  CFA does not recognize a color for high smokes currently.  They do not have a color class for them and so I am not going to discuss them. Yes, I have some….and they do not do well in show because they do not have their own class.  Maybe one day. Please respect that I am trying to teach from the CFA standard to the best that I understand it.

 

I do believe that the smokes have their own wide banding gene. I do not know what it is called so in my examples I will use smokes in reference to some wide banding examples…hint hint.

 

Let us review what we have learned!

 

Agouti (tabby) = A

Non-agouti (not tabby) = a

A/A= Tabby    A/a= Tabby carries solid     a/a= Solid

 

Dilute (blue or cream)= d

Non dilute (black or red)= D

D/D= Not dilute    D/d= Not dilute but carries dilute    d/d= dilute

 

Silver= I

Non silver= i

I/I= silver   I/i= Silver    i/i= Not silver

 

Wide band= Wb

No wide band= wb

Wb/Wb= Wide band (shell cat)   Wb/wb= Wide band (Shaded cat)    wb/wb= Not wide banded

 

 

We talked about Kyle earlier today on my Facebook post. Let’s look at him with what we know now..

Kyle is base color red. He is the following

a/a= ?

d/d= ?

I/I or I/i (unknown which) = ?

Wb/Wb=

Can you describe Kyles color better with this information?

 

I will answer this shortly. Let’s do another one.

 

Pascal is base color black. He is the following

A/A=

D/d=

I/i=

Wb/wb=

 

One more that I will fill in.

Loki is base color red.

​

A/A= Tabby does not carry solid

D/d= Carries dilute

I/i= Silver

Wb/wb= Shaded

Loki is a red shaded tabby who does not carry for solid but does carry for dilute. In CFA he is considered a Shaded Cameo.

 

Kyle is a Shell Cream also sometimes referred to as a cream chinchilla. Solid, dilute, silver shell.

Pascal is a Shaded Silver. Tabby, black, silver shaded.

 

Easy peasy lemon squeezy….right!