Inheritance of Albinism in the Meadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus)

Genetic status of the Brown bear Vrsus arctos in Nordic zoos

“…The presumed genetic basis of albinism in the Brown bear is consistent with a recessive allele at an autosomal locus and this mode of inheritance is in agreement with the one typically observed for albinism in other mammals (Witkop, 1975;Long & Hogan, 1988;Brewer et al, 1993). There is a statistically significant excess of albino bears among the inbred fraction of the population (P < 0.05; Fisher's exact test).…”

“…In the Nordic captive Brown bear population albinism is significantly associated with inbreeding. Albinism is an abnormal condition in most species (Witkop, 1975) and is connected with several negative effects, such as neural and visual problems (Guillery & Kaas, 1973;Guillery, 1986) and significantly reduced body mass (Brewer et al, 1993). Furthermore, there is strong evidence of other detrimental effects of inbreeding in the Brown bear, such as reduced litter size (Laikre et al, 1996).…”

“…One of the problems recognized by SAZA is albinism, which has occurred at three Nordic zoos. The genetic basis of albinism and its apparent rarity in wild mammals (Witkop, 1975;Long & Hogan, 1988;Brewer et al, 1993) suggest that its occurrence in captive Nordic Brown bears may be the result of extensive inbreeding. Albinism has not been observed in Brown bears in the wild (Harting, 1987) or at zoological institutions in other regions.…”

Hereditary defects and conservation genetic management of captive populations

“…It is most commonly caused by single autosomal recessive alleles [Petersen et al, 1944;Brewer et al, 1993;Rothbard and Wohlfarth, 1993], which may occur at either of a few different loci [Witkop, 1971;Long and Hogan, 1988]. In some cases albinism or similar pigmentation disorders have been shown to be caused by autosomal dominant or sex-linked alleles [e.g., Hutt and Mueller, 1942;Pipkin and Bedichek Pipkin, 1942].…”

First Record of Leucism in the GenusPeromyscus(Mammalia: Rodentia)

“…In the order Rodentia, many cases of anomalous coloration have been reported in genera such as Microtus (Peles et al 1995, Brewer et al 1993, Myodes (Whitman 2009), Ondatra (Benton 1953), Reithrodontomys (Egoscue 1958), Perognathus (Egoscue and Lewis 1968), Mus musculus (Winston and Lindzey 1964), Otomys (Pirlot 1958), Rattus (El-Bakry 2010), Ammosper mophilus (Neal 1964), Citellus (Turkowski and Parker 1967), Funambulus (Mahabal et al 2005), Sciurus (Hoeskstra 2004), Tamias (Guiles 1997), Thomomys (Burnet 1925), and Dasyprocta (Oli veira 2009). But in Peromyscus, which is the most species-rich genus in North America, neither albinism nor leucism have been reported in the wild.…”