The Coat Colors of Mice: A Model for Mammalian Gene Action and Interaction

Many investigators seem to be fascinated by the coat colors of the mam­ mals with which they work. This seems to be the case particularly for those utilizing isogenic strains of mice, not only because such strains display wide­ ly different phenotypes, but because scientists, by definition, are an inquisi­ tive lot and it is sometimes difficult for the uninitiated to comprehend how such phenotypes are produced. This bewilderment becomes even more ap­ parent if the investigator happens to be involved in breeding studies and a number of attractively colored animals, quite different from the original stocks, appear. Thus I can recall numerous occasions when my colleagues, frequently working in areas completely unrelated to any aspect of genetics, have come to me with an attractively pigmented animal or, more likely, with a popUlation of segregating coat color types (usually because they have not tended their animals properly and have ended up with a cage full of F 2S displaying a number of different colors). How, they ask, do such colors come about? While in some cases it is easy to take chalk in hand and explain what has been going on (segregating) and why, in other cases it is virtually impossible. It is extremely difficult because while the interactions of many coat-color factors obey the simple laws of heredity and of predictable gene interactions, others do not.