Question

In cats with tortoiseshell coat color, the fur is white with patchy black and orange spots. In cats, the tortoiseshell gene is on the X chromosome, and the tortoiseshell phenotype requires the presence of 2 different alleles at this locus: one for orange fur (o) and one for black fur (b).

What phenomenon best explains why female cats can inherit tortoiseshell coat color?

		In females, the alleles for coat color are pleiotropic, resulting in patches of orange and black coat color.
		In females, these coat color alleles show incomplete dominance, but in males, the coat color alleles do not.
		Females typically express both the orange and the black allele in each cell (alleles are co-dominant), making orange and black coat color possible.
		Females are mosaic with respect to their X chromosomes, because in each cell, one of the X chromosomes is randomly inactivated.

Answer 1

Tortoiseshell are also known as calimanco tiger cats.Tortoiseshell have patches of orange fur and black or brown fur caused by X inactivation.,because this requires two X chromosome.The vast majority of tortoiseshell are females with approximately 1 in 3,000 being male.Male tortoiseshells occurs as a result of chromosomal abnormality such as klinefilter syndrome or by masaicism and other syndromes.

A Cat which has both an orange and non-orange gene, Oo and little to no white spotting,will present with mottled blend of red/cream and black/blue is called as Tortoiseshell Cat.

The result of is a tortoiseshell coat pattern made up of alternating patches of black and tan fur.The black patches comes from group of cells in which the X with the black allele is active, while the tan patches come from cells in which the X with tan allele is active.

Most are female and males are extremely rare.

Tortoiseshell cats occur in a variety of breed including American shorthair, British shorthair ,Cornish Rex.Both purebreed and maine breed can produce a tortoiseshell coat that either short or long hair..