And now, let's talk about the known connections between hair color and behavior. A number of years ago, several studies investigated the anecdotal phenomenon that anesthesiologists reported of red-haired people being more challenging to anesthetize, typically requiring a greater dose of anesthetic. It turns out to be true. See Liem et. al. Anesthesiology, V 101, No 2, Aug 2004. (I can send you a reprint). This is also seen in rodents (Xing et. al., Anesthesiology, V 101, No 2, Aug 2004). Back when I taught 1st year veterinary students, we discussed this phenomenon. It relates to the primary determinant point of coat color, the Melanocortin 1 receptor (MCR1 - which is not X-linked). This is a classic example of neuro-endocrine interactions, and the efficient use of genes, where one gene may have multiple jobs to do. The ligand for MCR1 is alpha-MSH, which is derived from Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), whose other products include ACTH and Beta-endorphins. So really, it should not come as a surprise that coat color (or hair color in humans) might actually be linked to behavior!
Well we had two ginger cats often come by our place. Both males. There was Simon who loved to be sung to and the august and very dignified Mr. Beebers, a large male, who resented being laughed at and would turn his back and sit ignoring you if you made light of him. Both cats were pretty wonderful and fully "people" in a sense.
Classic! I love it when they display human-like behavior, especially spite/snubbing. The Redditor story of the cat crushing a Ritz cracker while staring at the owner really got me, "He knows I HATE that" 🤣
Interesting! Reinforced some career-long observations (I won’t intentionally get a female cat 😎) but made me question some others. Love the “plural of anecdotal is not data’. 😀. Thanks Eric!
Forgot to mention one of Ernie’s weird orange cat behaviors is surgically pulling bookmarks out of books I’m reading and running around with them in his mouth 😹 I’ve caught him in the act!
Hi Eric, I wish you had come to me for some help on the genetics. Your genetic chances for orange male versus female cats is all wrong! The issue is allele frequency. The latest data I have seen, which is quite dated, shows that the "orange" X allele frequency in the US is about 10%. That means, since male cats only need one X, that the frequency of orange male cats is also 10%. Since an orange female cat would require TWO "orange" X's, the chance of an orange female cat is the PRODUCT of the allele frequencies or 0.1 * 0.1 which is 0.01 or 1%. So the chance of an an orange female cat is about 10% of that of an orange male cat, and orange female cats, at 1% of the female population are quite rare.
And now, let's talk about the known connections between hair color and behavior. A number of years ago, several studies investigated the anecdotal phenomenon that anesthesiologists reported of red-haired people being more challenging to anesthetize, typically requiring a greater dose of anesthetic. It turns out to be true. See Liem et. al. Anesthesiology, V 101, No 2, Aug 2004. (I can send you a reprint). This is also seen in rodents (Xing et. al., Anesthesiology, V 101, No 2, Aug 2004). Back when I taught 1st year veterinary students, we discussed this phenomenon. It relates to the primary determinant point of coat color, the Melanocortin 1 receptor (MCR1 - which is not X-linked). This is a classic example of neuro-endocrine interactions, and the efficient use of genes, where one gene may have multiple jobs to do. The ligand for MCR1 is alpha-MSH, which is derived from Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), whose other products include ACTH and Beta-endorphins. So really, it should not come as a surprise that coat color (or hair color in humans) might actually be linked to behavior!
Interesting! I was aware of the anesthesia observed phenomenon, but had not heard of the MCR1 mechanistic link
Well we had two ginger cats often come by our place. Both males. There was Simon who loved to be sung to and the august and very dignified Mr. Beebers, a large male, who resented being laughed at and would turn his back and sit ignoring you if you made light of him. Both cats were pretty wonderful and fully "people" in a sense.
Classic! I love it when they display human-like behavior, especially spite/snubbing. The Redditor story of the cat crushing a Ritz cracker while staring at the owner really got me, "He knows I HATE that" 🤣
Interesting! Reinforced some career-long observations (I won’t intentionally get a female cat 😎) but made me question some others. Love the “plural of anecdotal is not data’. 😀. Thanks Eric!
Forgot to mention one of Ernie’s weird orange cat behaviors is surgically pulling bookmarks out of books I’m reading and running around with them in his mouth 😹 I’ve caught him in the act!
Hi Eric, I wish you had come to me for some help on the genetics. Your genetic chances for orange male versus female cats is all wrong! The issue is allele frequency. The latest data I have seen, which is quite dated, shows that the "orange" X allele frequency in the US is about 10%. That means, since male cats only need one X, that the frequency of orange male cats is also 10%. Since an orange female cat would require TWO "orange" X's, the chance of an orange female cat is the PRODUCT of the allele frequencies or 0.1 * 0.1 which is 0.01 or 1%. So the chance of an an orange female cat is about 10% of that of an orange male cat, and orange female cats, at 1% of the female population are quite rare.
Thank you for your clarification on the numbers, I will append your comments in that section of the article