Agouti is a type of fur coloration in which each

hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...

displays two or more bands of pigmentation. The overall appearance of agouti fur is usually gray or dull

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

, although dull

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

is also possible. Agouti fur is characterized by an appearance of being composed of hairs of different colors, separate from definite markings (although agouti can appear in combination with other markings, such as spots, stripes or patches). This effect is caused by different ''portions'' of each hair being visible, such that different colors of the hair's banding are seen, despite hairs actually having similar coloration. This effect produces a very distinctive, finely "speckled" appearance similar to "salt and pepper" hair, as well as an iridescent effect very similar to shot silk which causes the overall color to appear to shift subtly depending on the angle of the light or when the animal moves. Agouti fur is the wild type pigmentation for many domesticated

mammals A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle e ...

. It is a highly recognized characteristic trait of several animals, including many wild canids, wild felids, wild rabbits, and wild rodents, such as the namesake agouti.

Canines

In dogs, there are four alleles on the agouti locus with the hierarchy of dominance ( epistasis): Ay, aw, at, a. This means a descendant can develop a recessive coat pattern in the

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology (physical form and structure), its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological propert ...

only if both parents are genetic carriers of the corresponding allele or if one parent inherits an epistatically underlying allele to the offspring. The alleles Ay, at and an are not present in wild wolves that have no domestic dog among their ancestors.Sheila M. Schmutz:
Agouti Sequence Polymorphisms in Coyotes, Wolves and Dogs Suggest Hybridization
' File:Canis_lupus_signatus_-_01.jpg, An Iberian wolf with agouti coloration File:Bucuresti, Romania, acelasi dulau, frumos de Cotroceni.JPG, An agouti dog File:AustrKelpieBlackTan1 wb.jpg, Australian Kelpie Genotype at
black and tan File:Oola - 6 months.jpg, Great Dane Genotype Ay either homozygous or in combination with one of the other alleles File:Agouti Locus inheritance pattern F1.png, cross of two different homozygous individuals File:Agouti Locus inheritance pattern F2.png, cross of two
genetic carriers File:Agouti locus inheritance pattern 3 cross with genetic carrier.png, Cross of a homozygous individual with a carrier

House Mice (Mus musculus)

In fancy mice, there are eight common alleles on the Agouti locus with the hierarchy of: A^y, A^vy, A^hvy, A^w, A, a^t, a, and a^e. File:Agouti Yellow.jpg, alt=Yellow House Mouse, A lethal yellow lab mouse with the genotype A^y/a. File:Viable Yellow Mice.png, Five viable yellow brindle mice with the genotype A^vy/*. They range from solid yellow to pseudoagouti.

References

Animal coat colors {{Vertebrate anatomy-stub

Canines

House Mice (Mus musculus)

See also

References