Fox colors in relation to colors in mice and sheep.

Color inheritance in foxes is explained in terms of homology between color loci in foxes, mice, and sheep. The hypothesis presented suggests that the loci A (agouti), B (black/chocolate brown pigment) and E (extension of eumelanin vs. phaeomelanin) all occur in foxes, both the red fox, Vulpes vulpes, and the arctic fox, Alopex lagopus. Two alleles are postulated at each locus in each species. At the A locus, the (top) dominant allele in the red fox, Ar, produces red color and the corresponding allele in the arctic fox, Aw, produces the winter-white color. The bottom recessive allele in both species is a, which results in the black color of the silver fox and a rare black color in the Icelandic arctic fox when homozygous. The B alleles are assumed to be similar in both species: B, dominant, producing black eumelanin, and b, recessive, producing chocolate brown eumelanin when homozygous. The recessive E allele at the E locus in homozygous form has no effect on the phenotype determined by alleles at the A locus, while Ed, the dominant allele is epistatic to the A alleles and results in Alaska black in the red fox and the dark phase in the arctic fox. Genetic formulae of various color forms of red and arctic fox and their hybrids are presented.