Coat color genetics in Chinese Cresteds part I: An introduction

by Annika Farstad
© 2006

Have you ever wondered how your dog came to be the colour he is? This article will hopefully explain a little bit about how colours are inherited and why there is such a wide range of colours in the Chinese Crested.

Chinese Cresteds are colorful, and these colors comes from a wide range of genes. The genes combine to determine the coat color and the coat pattern.

It is important to remember that mammals have only two forms of melanin in their coats. One, eumelanin, is dark, though it can vary somewhat in color due to variations in the protein that forms the framework of the pigment granule. The base form of eumelanin is black. Eumelanin can also appear brown (often called liver or chocolate) or blue-gray due to genes affecting the color.

The second pigment called phaeomelanin, is red. Phaeomelanin and can vary in color from pale cream through shades of yellow, tan and red to mahogany.

There are at least several gene series that determine where, on the dog and along the length of the hair, eumelanin and phaeomelanin appear.