The development of regional pigmentation patterns in black and tan (at) Mice

Abstract

Mice which express the black and tan (a^t) allele at the agouti locus have black dorsal and yellow ventral hairs. To determine the site of action of this allele, the kind of hair pigment produced by various dermal-epidermal recombinations of dorsal and ventral black and tan (a^t / a^t), ventral nonagouti (a^t / a^t) and ventral yellow (A^y / a) embryonic skin has been investigated. The results indicate that it is the dermis which is responsible for the development of regional pigmentation patterns in black and tan mice.