Eleonora Ruggiero has seen some pictures of "golden" Maine Coons (MCO), but is certain they have a sunshine-like gene, similar to that in SIB (and possibly with some SIB in their ancestry). She has sent a sample from a golden MCO that does not look sunshine-like to Marie Abitbol for testing.

I have photos of golden MCO-type cats bred from barn cats in the USA over several generations. Being from non-pedigree barn cat ancestors, these did not have the showbench Maine Coon type, but they had potential to be crossed to MCO to create golden Maine Coons (or to be developed into an American golden or sunshine longhair). They were very reddish, with golden undersides and black pads. Unfortunately, the owner died and no-one took on the breeding programme. The cats were neutered and homed by rescue shelters and the breeding records were lost. There is no potential to DNA test these cats due to the passage of time and unknown whereabouts of the cats. Had they been born at the time I am writing this article they would probably have been taken on by breeders involved in copper and sunshine cats.

These photos came from Lisa Wahl (www.blindcougar.org) and showed the golden tabbies bred from barn cat stock in the USA. Some have red markings and others have brown markings, but the background colour is bright golden. The cats came from a breeder who had died, leaving behind a line of golden "Maine Coon type" cats she had developed from barn cats, plus extensive breeding records. Some of the 50 cats rescued had very red undersides, and black paw pads.

GENETICS OF AGOUTI AND CORIN GENES

The researchers found a number of single nucleotide variations in the Bengal corin gene. Of the 19 protein-altering Corin variants in Bengal cats, 7 are not associated with colour variation. A corin allele of domestic cat origin also contributed to colour variation in Bengals.

The previously known Corin mutations are
CORIN:C.839G>A - extreme-sunshine Siberian cats.
CORIN:C.2383C>T - sunshine Siberian cats.
CORIN:C.2425C>T - copper/flaxen gold/akita British Shorthair/Longhair cats.
CORIN:C.1759C>T - golden tiger (big cat).

None of the three domestic cat Corin mutations were detected in Bengal cats. This means there are novel Corin mutations in Bengals referred to here as CorinPb.

- Christopher B. Kaelin, Kelly A. McGowan, Anthony D. Hutcherson, John M. Delay, Gregory S. Barsh, "Ancestry dynamics and trait selection in a designer cat breed," December 12, 2022.