The agouti gene: turned on to yellow.

The agouti locus was first identified as a result of its effects on the type and temporal deposition of coat color pigments in mammals. Many mutations at the murine agouti locus have now been found, some of which not only affect coat color, but also interfere with diverse biological processes leading to diabetes, obesity, tumor susceptibility and embryonic lethality. Correlations between the genotype and phenotype of agouti mutants, as well as reasons for the pleiotropy of effects caused by agouti mutations, have begun to unfold with the molecular cloning of the agouti gene and its surrounding genomic region.