| The distinct "silver" phenotype that is seen in the domestic cat is a unique trait that leaves the coat of these felines devoid of the lighter pigment, known as pheomelanin. The absence of this yellowish-red pigment has been suggested to be a failure to produce and/or transport pheomelanin in the melanocytes of the hair follicle. Accumulating evidence supports that this phenotype is conferred by a novel mediator of pheomelanogenesis. Recently, the locus for the autosomal dominant silver phenotype, Inhibitor (I), was localized to a 3.3 Mb region on chromosome D2. Using a linkage analysis, this study confirms these previous results and refines the location of Inhibitor to a 610 Kb consensus region. Included within this region are five genes that have no reported connections to the production of melanin. This study reports the sequence results of the coding regions of these five genes: TIAL1, BAG3, INPP5F, SEC23IP, and c10orf119. No causative mutations have yet been identified to cause the silver phenotype. |
