What can I say, Caturday came and never fuckin left for me.
This photo has been making the rounds, so let's talk about it quick.
This is a Minuet or Napoleon cat (meaning a cross between a Persian and a Munchkin) named Bruce. Supposedly, it is a male, but the internet doesn't have proof; I'd like to see genitals, personally.
He appears to be a male tortishell, which can happen in 3 ways;
1️⃣ Somatic Mutation
Basically a mutation of the coat color, where in this case instead of coding for brown or orange or whatever, the gene made a mistake and coded for black.
2️⃣ Klinefelter Syndrome
Because the gene for orange and non-orange coloring is located on the X chromosome, it required two X chromosomes to have Orange and Black or Orange and Blue coloring. However, Klinefelter Syndrome results in males having XXY, allowing that second X to carry another color besides orange.
3️⃣ Chimerism
This happens when 2 eggs in utero fuse into one kitten. This means different parts of the fur may belong to different eggs, giving the cat what appears to be the head of another cat.
This photo has been making the rounds, so let's talk about it quick.
This is a Minuet or Napoleon cat (meaning a cross between a Persian and a Munchkin) named Bruce. Supposedly, it is a male, but the internet doesn't have proof; I'd like to see genitals, personally.
He appears to be a male tortishell, which can happen in 3 ways;
1️⃣ Somatic Mutation
Basically a mutation of the coat color, where in this case instead of coding for brown or orange or whatever, the gene made a mistake and coded for black.
2️⃣ Klinefelter Syndrome
Because the gene for orange and non-orange coloring is located on the X chromosome, it required two X chromosomes to have Orange and Black or Orange and Blue coloring. However, Klinefelter Syndrome results in males having XXY, allowing that second X to carry another color besides orange.
3️⃣ Chimerism
This happens when 2 eggs in utero fuse into one kitten. This means different parts of the fur may belong to different eggs, giving the cat what appears to be the head of another cat.
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Does Chimerism ever happen to humans without horrible bad health consequences?
But it is believed to happen in a lot of animals. Most are not confirmed though, as it would take expensive DNA testing.
There is also chimerism, which is 2 different cells from different zygotes (in cases posted, it would be like siblings that fused. But this means it can be, in theory, other species), or mosiacism, which is 2 different cells in the same zygote that happen to have different genotypes due to mutation.
Not to be confused with sexual dimorphism, totally different genetic mutation.