Color Modification
Chocolate (bc)
Alternative Names: Brown, Liver, Chestnut, Red
This chocolate color variant, also known as “bc”, is associated with a dog’s darkest color pigment being limited to brown instead of black. Meaning all dark hair, nails and skin (including eye rims, nose and paw pads) will be a shade of brown or chocolate. This variant is found in the TYRP1 gene, known as the B locus. It was previously reported as Chocolate (Variant 1).
More Info
Did you know?
Chocolate dogs are unable to produce black pigment, so even their freckles are chocolate, and their eye color is usually gold or amber.
How it works
To show chocolate coloration a dog must inherit two chocolate variants, one from each parent. This can either be two copies of a particular variant, such as this one ("bc”), or two of any combination of chocolate variants.
Prevalence
2 in 10 dogs
have one or more copy of this genetic variant in our testing.
Technical Details
| Gene | TYRP1 |
|---|---|
| Also Called | Brown (B) Locus |
| Variant | T>A |
| Chromosome | 11 |
| Coordinate | 33,317,810 |
All coordinates reference CanFam3.1
References & Credit
Credit to our scientific colleagues:
Schmutz, S. M., & Berryere, T. G. (2007). Genes affecting coat colour and pattern in domestic dogs: A review. Animal Genetics, 38(6), 539–549. View the article
Schmutz, S. M., Berryere, T. G., & Goldfinch, A. D. (2002). TYRP1 and MC1R genotypes and their effects on coat color in dogs. Mammalian Genome, 13(7), 380–387. View the article