Chocolate French Bulldogs
Table of Contents
Coco – a dilution
Coco is an allele of its own. Previously called untestable chocolate, it’s actually a mutant gene that masks other colors. This also needs 2 copies of coco to express.
Appearance – Chocolate French bulldogs
The chocolate color of coco dogs is much darker than those of rojos. More like a dark chocolate, almost black.
They have lighter eyes. When combined with d/d this creates Lilac.
Coco Genetics Explained:
There are several known variants that result in the brown phenotype in dogs.
All are in tyrosinase related protein 1 (TYRP1). However, these known variants do not account for all brown phenotypes in dogs.
The cocoa variant is in another gene and is therefore not another allele of TYRP1. This has important implications for breeding as in some instances the alleles at both genes would need to be considered during mate selection.
Specifically, in French Bulldogs, a variant associated with a visually distinct chocolate phenotype was identified in the Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome 3 (HPS3) gene. Dogs with the HPS3 gene variant are visibly darker brown than the phenotypes associated with the previously described TYRP1 brown allele (b).
The variant associated with the cocoa phenotype is recessive, therefore two copies must be present for the phenotype to be expressed. Data suggest one copy of cocoa (carrier) and one copy of “b” (carrier) for brown will not result in a brown phenotype.
Dogs with two copies of the cocoa variant may be cocoa, however the final phenotype of the dog is dependent on the alleles at other coat color locus.
At this time, it is also unknown if the cocoa variant is found in other dog breeds.
Colors Created with Coco:
These are the colors when combined with other locus:
dd coco- lilac
dd bb coco- Isabella new shade
bb coco – double chocolate
coco ee – champagne
dd coco ee – platinum
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