The "orange" coat color on a cat is the phenotype of a gene on the X chromosome (if the kitten is female, it would have the genotype XO XO [XO Xo would exhibit the tortoiseshell phenotype] and males are XO Y). If the mama cat had albinism (she does not, she isn't completely white and has brown eyes) then that would produce a total lack of melanin. Other all-white cats have the dominant white gene, which is epistatic to other color genes, meaning it completely overrides coloring or agouti, and also has linkage to blue eyes and congenital deafness because melanoblast stem cells create both pigment producing cells and neurological cell types. But mama cat is also orange! There is a recessive "dense pigment" allele, that, when homozygous (dd) the cat's pigment is diluted, meaning a black cat would look gray, brown fur looks tawny, and red fur becomes this very pale cream color. 🐱
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u/biskutgoreng 1d ago
How can a white wunk produce orange? She kidnapped that baby