Orange male cats are uniformly colored, ... Most end up displaying a mosaic of orange and black, a patchwork quilt of fur caused by a genetic process called random X inactivation.

Many an orange cat-affiliated human will vouch for their cat's, let's say, specialness. But now scientists have confirmed that there is, in fact, something unique about ginger-hued domestic felines.

Male cats are either orange or black (they have only one X chromosome), but cannot be bicolored or tricolored, ... Females can therefore have the unique mosaic patterns so prized by cat lovers.

In cats, eumelanin or pheomelanin production is not controlled by the MC1R receptor. Instead, it is in the hands of a locus (whose gene was, until now, unknown) called "orange".

Most orange cats are male, about 80%, to be more exact, according to the Regional Animal Protection Society. And the findings from the recent studies make sense of why.

In orange cats, the missing segment is located on an intron, or noncoding region, of the ARHGAP36 gene, which is also in neuroendocrine tissues (especially the hypothalamus), adrenal glands, and ...

Approximately 80% of orange cats are males, including the four orange cats owned by the Short Wave team. Scientists have long suspected that orange color was a sex-linked trait — hiding ...

She said orange cats found homes quickly for reasons of both standout appearance and personality. “I’m partial to orange cats,” she shared. “I grew up with an orange cat — that was my baby.

From Tama, Japan's most famous stationmaster calico cat, to the lasagna-loving, ginger Garfield, cats with orange fur are both cultural icons and beloved pets. But their distinctive color comes ...

Related: Orange Cat's Dedicated 'Peeping Tom' Skills Are Downright Impressive. Orange cats who are male (with X and Y chromosomes) and have ginger parents get completely orange fur while females ...

The result is a mosaic of pigment cells, ... "The mutation in orange cats seems to turn on Arghap36 expression in a cell type, the pigment cell, where it's not normally expressed." ...