Question

The allele for orange fur in cats is Xb, while the allele for black fur is XB. You adopt a tortoiseshell kitten (with orange and black fur). When you take the kitten to the vet, you find out that it is a male. What is the genotype of this kitten?

Answer 1

The tortoiseshell male kitten likely has an atypical genetic condition called Klinefelter's syndrome with a genotype of XBXbY, allowing for both orange and black fur alleles to be present.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the context of cat genetics, a tortoiseshell male cat is very unusual since tortoiseshell patterns generally indicate a female cat due to X chromosome inactivation. Typically, male cats have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome (XY), and they manifest the color of the allele present on their single X chromosome. Therefore, a typical male cat can be either orange (XbY) or black (XBY), but not tortoiseshell.

However, the presence of a tortoiseshell pattern in a male cat suggests an atypical genetic condition called Klinefelter's syndrome, where the male cat has an extra X chromosome (XXY). This extra X chromosome allows for the possibility of having both black and orange coat color alleles, leading to the tortoiseshell phenotype. Hence, the genotype of your tortoiseshell male kitten would be XBXbY.