Volume 27, No 7, Jul 2017

ISSN: 1001-0602 
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018 
impact factor 17.848* 
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)

Volume 27 Issue 7, July 2017: 954-957

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The genetics of tiger pelage color variations

Xiao Xu¹, Gui-Xin Dong², Anne Schmidt-Küntzel³, Xue-Li Zhang², Yan Zhuang¹, Run Fang¹, Xin Sun¹, Xue-Song Hu¹, Tian-You Zhang², Han-Dong Yang², De-Lu Zhang², Laurie Marker³, Zheng-Fan Jiang¹, Ruiqiang Li⁴ and Shu-Jin Luo¹

¹School of Life Sciences, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
²Chimelong Safari Park, Chimelong Group Co., Panyu, Guangzhou 511430, China
³Life Technologies Conservation Genetics Laboratory, Cheetah Conservation Fund, Otjiwarongo 9000, Namibia
⁴Novogene Bioinformatics Institute, Beijing 100083, China Correspondence: Shu-Jin Luo,(luo.shujin@pku.edu.cn)

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is most recognized for its dark stripes against an orange background. Less well known are three other pelage color variants: white, golden and stripeless snow white (Figure 1A). The white tiger is a polymorphism that was first seen among wild Bengal tigers (P. t. tigris) in India, with white fur and sepia brown stripes1. The golden tiger, also first sighted in the jungle in India, has a blonde color tone with pale golden fur and red-brown rather than black stripes2. The snow white tiger is almost completely white, with faint to nearly nonexistent narrow stripes on the trunk and diluted sepia brown rings on the tail2. During the past century, the number of wild tigers in the world has severely declined primarily due to anthropogenic reasons, and except for the wild-type orange tigers, all other variants now exist only in captivity.

10.1038/cr.2017.32

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