Plant & Animal Genome IX Conference

Workshop: Coat Color
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COAT COLOUR GENETICS IN CATTLE

Department of Animal Science, Agricultural University of Norway, P.O.Box 5025, 1432 Aas, NLH, Norway

While many wild animal species are relatively uniform coloured, a wide variety of coat colors are found in cattle and other domestic animals. These species are, therefore, of great use when studying loci affecting pigmentation. Two major aspects of cattle pigmentation will be presented and involves regulation of pigment synthesis and distribution of pigment producing cells or coat color pattern. The melanocyte-stimulating hormone receptor (MC1-R) has a major function in the regulation of black (eumelanin) versus red (phaeomelanin)pigment synthesis in cattle. It is further shown that allele frequencies of this locus reflects the selection pressure used when establishing the breed. A similar situation is found for the tyrosinase kinase c-kit receptor gene which has also been shown to affect the level of spotting.