W-Locus (white spotting)

The W-Locus is a region of your cat's DNA which controls whether your cat is white, or has white spotting. The white mutation can also cause deafness and blue eye colour.

There are two alleles, or mutations, present in the W-locus which cause white or white spotting on your cat's coat; W, and w^s. The W is dominant, meaning that a single copy will cause a cat to be white and can cause a degree of deafness. w^s causes variable white spotting ranging anywhere from a few white hairs to an almost fully white cat.

White or white spotting is caused by mutations on the KIT gene.

Results:

Your results will be reported as one combination of the B-locus alleles with the following interpretations.

Scientific references:

David VA, Menotti-Raymond M, Wallace AC, Roelke M, Kehler J, Leighty R, Eizirik E, Hannah SS, Nelson G, Schäffer AA, Connelly CJ, O'Brien SJ, Ryugo DK. Endogenous retrovirus insertion in the KIT oncogene determines white and white spotting in domestic cats. G3 (Bethesda). 2014 Aug 1;4(10):1881-91