Nine thousand years ago, humans began domesticating cats. Nine hundred years ago, before the advent of intentional cat breeding, a genetic mutation gave rise to the first orange cat. Days ago ...

Females with just one orange X chromosome can present as tortoiseshell or calico. These mottled and patchy coats are a visual manifestation of the genetic phenomenon of “random X inactivation ...

on Friday, May 23, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group) Females with just one orange X chromosome can present as tortoiseshell or calico. These mottled and patchy coats are a visual ...

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This is why most calico and tortoiseshell cats, which have a mix of black and brown fur, are female. In somatic cells, only one of the two X chromosomes is active, and as a result, the black and ...

Two separate research teams found that the characteristic ginger, calico, and tortoiseshell colours in cats are due to a missing piece of DNA in a part of the cat's genome that doesn't make proteins.

For more than a century, the genetic secrets behind the vibrant orange coats of ginger cats and the intricate patterns of ...

His theory suggested that orange coat color was controlled by a variant on the X chromosome, explaining why ginger cats are mostly male and why tortoiseshell cats, with their mix of orange and non ...

Tortoiseshell cats have a brindling pattern (mixture) of orange and non-orange hairs throughout the coat, with some areas mostly orange or non-orange. Calico cats have distinct patches of orange ...