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

, , , , , , ,

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.