The Genetic Basis of White Tigers

This study resolved the long-standing mystery of the white tiger by mapping the trait in a captive pedigree and identifying a single amino-acid change in the pigment transporter gene SLC45A2. The variant reduces production of red and yellow pigment while largely sparing the black stripes, producing the distinctive white coat with dark markings. The authors emphasized that the white tiger is a naturally occurring color variant of the Bengal tiger rather than a separate subspecies or an albino, and they cautioned that the captive white-tiger population is heavily inbred. The work provided a clean molecular explanation for one of the most iconic big-cat phenotypes.