this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
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Usually which X chromosome gets deactivated as a Barr body changes depending on where in the female body you are. Or, as Veritasium put it: women are stripey.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BD6h-wDj7bw
I thought that was only during development, but by the time you are viable you are just riding on the dominate one. But this is all armchair understanding of these subjects.
Nope. The egg starts dividing before the deactivation of the extra X, and that propagates.
For instance: In cats, a big part of their skin pigmentation is controlled by the X chromosome. Which is why you’ll only find female calico cats. Males only carry the one X and can only manifest one color pattern.
just to be contrarian I had a male calico, and I also had a female orange (full) cat. But I get your meaning and I think I was saying the same thing. The skin is doing its thing long before the other X is decided which would then set a lot of the bones and features that I think get set after one has shut down (sorry if it came off like I didnt mean this).
Your male calico is likely intersex XXY. very rare.
Sorry, I had indeed misinterpreted your previous comment. Thanks for clarifying.
It was only a small eraser sized grey dot in a other wise orange tabby white mix. His name was Ru after Ru-paul and he was fabulous.