The transcriptional landscape of seasonal coat colour moult in the snowshoe hare. Lepus americanus

Seasonal coat colour change is an important adaptation to seasonally changing environments but the evolution of this and other circannual traits remains poorly understood. In this study we use gene expression to understand seasonal coat colour moulting in wild snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus). We used hair colour to follow the progression of the moult, simultaneously sampling skin from three moulting stages in hares collected during the peak of the spring moult from white winter to brown summer pelage. Using RNA-sequencing, we tested if patterns of expression were consistent with predictions based on the established phases of the hair growth cycle.