Atypical merle coat

Trait overview

Merle is a coat pattern that has patches of both diluted color and solid color. It is an incompletely dominant coat color caused by a variety of alleles. Merle dilutes eumelanin (black pigment). Muted Merle presents as a diluted Merle. Dogs with MC1R e/e genotype do not produce black pigment; therefore, they do not display the Merle pattern but can pass it down to their offspring.

Gene name(s)

PMEL

Inheritance

Autosomal incomplete dominance

More common in the following breeds

Dapple Dachshund, Australian Shepherd, Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Pyrenean Shepherd, Pomeranian, French Bulldogs, Mudi, Great Danes

Citations

Langevin M, Synkova H, Jancuskova T, Pekova S. Merle phenotypes in dogs - SILV SINE insertions from Mc to Mh. PLoS One. 2018 Sep 20;13(9):e0198536. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198536. PMID: 30235206; PMCID: PMC6147463.