Calico cats have three colors ... their characteristic ‘M’ marking on their forehead. A torbie is a mix of a tortoiseshell and a tabby, and it can display patches of both coat patterns ...

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 ...

A prime example of X inactivation is in the coat-color patterning of tortoiseshell or calico cats (Figure 1). In cats, the fur pigmentation gene is X-linked, and depending on which copy of the X ...