ALLELES: c⁺ (wild-type), c (mutant). Little (1958) mistakenly assumed silver ("silver agouti") was a homolog of the ch allele in other mammals and inferred a third allele. The error was copied by Deol (1963).

INHERITANCE: Recessive.

PHENOTYPE: Coat color is white. There is complete absence of melanin granules from hairs. Eyes and skin are also devoid of melanin pigments. Tyrosinase activity is absent.

LINKAGE: Linkage Group I = Chromosome 1. (Sumner, 1922; Clark, 1936; Huestis and Lindstedt, 1946).

INTERACTION: Albino is completely epistatic to ivory, pink-eye, brown, yellowing, gray and probably all other pelage color loci. It is also epistatic to the red-eye locus.

SOURCE: 1919. Scripps Institution. The mutant appeared in a laboratory stock of P.m. gambelii. At least two additional independent occurrences of the albino mutant in Peromyscus are known.

REFERENCE: Sumner (1922), Foster and Barto (1963).