Feline Color: The Albino Series
by Paul Patton
No matter what name we give to these colors, i.e. pointed, Burmese, mink, sepia, etc, they are all created by one series of alleles and that series is the Albino.
This series of five alleles, located at a single locus*, includes: 'C' which is dominant and produces the full expression of coat color; 'cb' which produces the Burmese colors and is co-dominant with the Siamese and dominant to the remaining alleles; 'cs' which produces the Siamese colors and is co-dominant with the Burmese allele and dominant to the remaining alleles; 'ca' which pro-duces a blue-eyed albino which is recessive to the prior alleles and dominant to the final allele; and 'c' which produces the true pink-eyed albino which is recessive to all the alleles.
(Author's Note: I have left the 'ca' and 'c' alleles out of the color breeding charts below. *In the fields of genetics, a locus (plural loci) is a fixed position on a chromosome that may be occupied by one or more genes. A variant of the DNA sequence at a given locus is called an allele.)
When combining the alleles:
cbcb – Sepia or Burmese colors; cbcs – Mink or Tonkinese colors; cscs – Pointed or Siamese colors. Also, as one has to distinguish between the normal solid color and the solid Burmese colors, the term Sepia is used to distinguish the solid Bur-mese colors. The chart below just refers to the pattern designation, but applies to ALL colors.
The are some differences between registry bodies concerning the naming of the particular color and pattern combina-tions, so one has to be knowledgeable in the naming protocol for their particular organization. As an example Sable is used by CFA to designate B-cbcb D- and TICA describes the color/as Seal Sepia.
One other quick note: since these alleles occupy the same loci, you cannot have a cat that carries mink. Simply because mink requires both the cb and the cs and both cannot be carried recessively.
Paul Patton is a CFA Sphynx judge still working the showhalls.
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