A missense mutation in the FZD7 gene is associated with dilution of the red areas of the coat in Montbéliarde cattle

Summary Recently, a new genetically autosomal recessive color phenotype emerged in the red pied bovine Montbéliarde breed. It is characterized by a dilution of the red areas of the coat and was denominated ‘milca’. A genome‐wide homozygosity scan of 106 cases followed by haplotype analysis revealed a candidate region within BTA2 between positions 89.95 and 91.63 Mb. Analysis of whole‐genome sequence data generated from milca animals identified a strong candidate variant within the coding region of the Frizzled‐7 gene (FZD7). This gene encodes for a G‐protein coupled receptor for Wnt signaling proteins. The variant induces a glycine to alanine substitution in the second extracellular loop, p.(Gly414Ala). Cross‐species amino acid alignments revealed that this glycine is conserved among orthologs and most paralogs, suggesting that it plays an important role in FZD function. In addition, genotyping data revealed that the mutant allele is restricted to the Montbéliarde breed, at a 3.7% frequency. All homozygous cows for the mutant allele exhibited the milca phenotype whereas all heterozygotes had no coat color defects. In conclusion, this study strongly suggests that, in cattle, a mutation of FZD7 alone is sufficient to cause a coat color phenotype without any strong other adverse effect.