Coat Color
Dilution
The Dilution variant causes a lightening of coat color pigments. Black pigment is diluted to blue, chocolate to lilac, cinnamon to fawn and red to cream.
More Info
Did you know?
The gene causing dilution of a cat’s coat color is involved with pigment distribution in growing hairs. When two copies of the recessive dilution gene are present, it causes an uneven distribution of pigment in hair shafts, leading to an illusion of lighter colored fur! The Dilution variant is one of the few coat color genes that can skip generations in cats.
How it works
Two copies of the Dilution variant are required to have a lightening effect on the coat.
Prevalence
6 in 10 cats
have one or more copy of this genetic variant in our testing.
Technical Details
| Gene | MLPH |
|---|---|
| Variant | Deletion |
| Chromosome | C1 |
| Coordinate | 219,396,820 |
All coordinates reference FelCat9.0
References & Credit
Credit to our scientific colleagues:
Ishida, Y., David, V. A., Eizirik, E., Schäffer, A. A., Neelam, B. A., Roelke, M. E., Hannah, S. S., O’Brien, S. J., & Menotti-Raymond, M. (2006). A homozygous single-base deletion in MLPH causes the dilute coat color phenotype in the domestic cat. Genomics, 88(6), 698–705. View the article