GEPHE SUMMARY Print
Gephebase Gene
Entry Status
Published
GepheID
GP00000067
Main curator
Martin
PHENOTYPIC CHANGE
Trait Category
Trait State in Taxon A
Vulpes vulpes domesticus
Trait State in Taxon B
Vulpes vulpes domesticus - black
Ancestral State
Taxon A
Taxonomic Status
Taxon A
Latin Name
Common Name
red fox
Synonyms
Canis vulpes; red fox; silver fox
Rank
species
Lineage
Show more ... ata; Gnathostomata; Teleostomi; Euteleostomi; Sarcopterygii; Dipnotetrapodomorpha; Tetrapoda; Amniota; Mammalia; Theria; Eutheria; Boreoeutheria; Laurasiatheria; Carnivora; Caniformia; Canidae; Vulpes
NCBI Taxonomy ID
is Taxon A an Infraspecies?
No
Taxon B
Latin Name
Common Name
red fox
Synonyms
Canis vulpes; red fox; silver fox
Rank
species
Lineage
Show more ... ata; Gnathostomata; Teleostomi; Euteleostomi; Sarcopterygii; Dipnotetrapodomorpha; Tetrapoda; Amniota; Mammalia; Theria; Eutheria; Boreoeutheria; Laurasiatheria; Carnivora; Caniformia; Canidae; Vulpes
NCBI Taxonomy ID
is Taxon B an Infraspecies?
No
GENOTYPIC CHANGE
Presumptive Null
Yes
Molecular Type
Aberration Type
Deletion Size
100-999 bp
Molecular Details of the Mutation
166 bp deletion in exon 1
Experimental Evidence
Authors
Våge DI; Lu D; Klungland H; Lien S; Adalsteinsson S; Cone RD
Abstract
Agouti and extension are two genes that control the production of yellow-red (phaeomelanin) and brown-black (eumelanin) pigments in the mammalian coat. Extension encodes the melanocyte-stimulating hormone receptor (MC1R) while agouti encodes a peptide antagonist of the receptor. In the mouse, extension is epistatic to agouti, hence dominant mutants of the MC1R encoding constitutively active receptors are not inhibited by the agouti antagonist, and animals with dominant alleles of both loci remain darkly pigmented. In the fox the proposed extension locus is not epistatic to the agouti locus. We have cloned and characterized the MC1R and the agouti gene in coat colour variants of the fox (Vulpes vulpes). A constitutively activating C125R mutation in the MC1R was found specifically in darkly pigmented animals carrying the Alaska Silver allele (EA). A deletion in the first coding exon of the agouti gene was found associated with the proposed recessive allele of agouti in the darkly pigmented Standard Silver fox (aa). Thus, as in the mouse, dark pigmentation can be caused by a constitutively active MC1R, or homozygous recessive status at the agouti locus. Our results, demonstrating the presence of dominant extension alleles in foxes with significant red coat colouration, suggest the ability of the fox agouti protein to counteract the signalling activity of a constitutively active fox MC1R.
Additional References
RELATED GEPHE
Related Haplotypes
No matches found.
EXTERNAL LINKS
COMMENTS
https://omia.org/OMIA000201/9627/
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