The Secret of Ginger Cats Revealed

This is no joke - until recently, scientists did not know the mechanism of the appearance of ginger coloring in cats, unlike most other ginger animals and humans. It turned out that cats have a completely different genetic mechanism: while in most animals the MC1R protein is responsible for color, in cats, this function is performed by the recently discovered gene Arhgap36. This gene is located on the X chromosome and exists in two versions: 'O' for ginger and 'o' for black. This arrangement creates unique combinations: Females with the 'Oo' combination become tricolor; Males can be only ginger or black due to a single X chromosome; Rare tricolor males are only possible with a genetic anomaly - an extra X chromosome.