{
  "id": 17510982,
  "title": "MC1R residue 223 is a convergent target for coat-colour lightening in domestic and wild bovids",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/31/mc1r-residue-223-is-a-convergent-target-for-coat-colour-lightening-in",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-31T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.30.762879v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The research into the evolution of grey coat colour in taurine cattle has unveiled a complex picture. By examining whole-genome resequencing data and various selection scans, scientists have identified candidate regions linked to the divergence of Podolian and Alpine lineages. A key signal associated with pigmentation was found on BTA18, which contained the genes FANCA, MC1R, and SPIRE2.\n\nThe majority of grey-coated breeds shared a specific haplotype on BTA18, featuring the MC1R p.Arg223Trp variant, as well as other candidate variants. However, the Tyrolean Grey cattle did not possess this predominant haplotype but instead carried a coding duplication at p.Gly220_Arg223dup, along with differentiation near the ASIP regulatory region. This implies that different coding changes can impact the same MC1R residue in distinct cattle lineages.\n\nFurther analysis of haplotypes provided evidence for the independent origins of the p.Arg223Trp and p.Gly220_Arg223dup insertions in the Podolian and Alpine lineages, respectively. Ancient-genome screening did not uncover any validated evidence of these variants, except for the p.Arg223Trp in medieval cattle.\n\nComparing the data across 1,108 mammalian taxa revealed that the p.Arg223Trp variant independently reappeared in the white-coated mountain goat, Oreamnos americanus. In this species, the derived allele was fixed in surveyed individuals, with a JTT-based neutral probability of 0.0043.\n\nThese findings lend support to a model where grey coat colour in cattle evolved via at least two partially distinct molecular routes within interacting pigmentation pathways. The study highlights MC1R residue 223 as a recurring target of coat-colour lightening, demonstrating how both domesticated and wild lineages can repeatedly target constrained functional positions during phenotypic evolution.",
  "summary": "Whether similar phenotypes evolve through shared substitutions or alternative molecular routes is a central question in evolutionary genomics. Grey-coated taurine cattle provide a powerful system for investigating this question using geographically distinct Podolian and Alpine lineages. We combined whole-genome resequencing data, complementary selection scans (hapFLK, DCMS and FST) and contrasts…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}