It was first discovered that the agouti protein binds to a melanocortin receptor located on a mouse's skin cells, which blocks those cells from making black pigment (Lu et al., 1994).

Feed adult mothers a methyl-rich or genistein-rich diet, and DNA methylation lowers expression of the agouti gene in their offspring, shifting their coat color away from the classic agouti yellow and ...

Both mice shown are embryonic stem cell–derived and the mouse carrying the corrected allele (A tm1Brd, bottom) has an agouti coat. ( e ) CGH plot showing no copy number variants in JM8A3 cells ...

"Nonagouti mice," by contrast, possess two a/a alleles due to a hypomorphic mutation of the agouti gene. This mutation causes an almost entirely loss of gene function, resulting in the mouse's ...

Mice that over-express the Agouti protein tend to be obese and susceptible to diabetes because the protein also binds with a receptor in the hypothalamus and interferes with the signal to stop eating.

Typically, when agouti mice breed, most of the offspring are identical to the parents: just as yellow, fat as pincushions, and susceptible to life-shortening disease. The parent mice in Jirtle and ...

Florida deer mice evolved lighter colored coats to camouflage themselves on the beach. Changes to the agouti protein stop the development of pigment-producing cells.

The agouti protein also prevents these mice from feeling full, no matter how much they eat, Murphy says. "So they become very obese and are predisposed to developing diabetes and cancer," she says.

"Nonagouti mice," by contrast, possess two a/a alleles due to a hypomorphic mutation of the agouti gene. This mutation causes an almost entirely loss of gene function, resulting in the mouse's ...

As we showed with the Agouti mice (Jirtle and Skinner, Nat. Rev. Genet. 8: 253-262, 2007), even subtle changes in maternal nutrition can dramatically change the coat color of the offspring and ...

Agouti changes the mouse's coloring by stopping the color-creating cells, called melanocytes, from maturing. Immature melanocytes don't make it into the hair follicles and can't make the pigments ...

Team member Stefan Laurent sequenced a gene called Agouti, which has been linked to fur color, in all 481 of the mice. He found seven mutations that had become more common in the light enclosures ...