preview

Male Calico Research Paper

Satisfactory Essays

Male calico cats are very rare and because of this scarcity they are very valuable in the cat world. Calico is a type of cat that is denoted by their orange, black and white coat. The color of a cat’s coat is strongly correlated to the gender of the cat because it is a sex-linked trait (Moss, 2015). Within genetics, the gender is determined by the X or Y chromosome. Females have two X chromosomes and males have one X and one Y chromosome. The black and orange color of a cat’s coat is denoted by the X gene. Most commonly, for a male cat, when they display an orange color it is shown in a striped fashion. Female cats can have more variety in their colors and how those colors are displayed on the coat because they have two X chromosomes. In other words, females can have both the black and orange fur because they have the two X chromosomes, whereas males can only display one of those colors at a time (Moss, 2015). …show more content…

This is possible when the XY chromosome combination does not split all the way, creating an XXY combination. This improper division is not restricted only to cats, however it can occur in humans as well, with different outcomes. Although genetically, this creates a unique and rare outcome, it doesn’t do this without any adverse effects. For example, most male calico cats are infertile, so they cannot reproduce and are not of future value to a cat breeder (Moss, 2015). However, they can be valuable on the market due to their

Get Access