Title: Genetic architecture and evolution of color variation in American black bears Authors: Emily E. Puckett 1,* , Isis S. Davis 1, 2 , Dawn C. Harper 3 , Kazumasa Wakamatsu 4 , Gopal Battu 5 , Jerrold L. Belant 6 , Dean E. Beyer, Jr. 6 , Colin Carpenter 7 , Anthony P. Crupi 8 , Maria Davidson 9, 10 , Christopher S. DePerno 11 , Nicholas Forman 12 , Nicholas L. Fowler 8 , David L. Garshelis 13, 14 , Nicholas Gould 11 , Kerry Gunther 15 , Mark Haroldson 16 , Shosuke Ito 4 , David Kocka 17 , Carl Lackey 18 , Ryan Leahy 19,20 , Caitlin Lee-Roney 19 , Tania Lewis 21 , Ashley Lutto 22 , Kelly McGowan 23 , Colleen Olfenbuttel 24 , Mike Orlando 25 , Alexander Platt 26 , Matthew D. Pollard 1 , Megan Ramaker 5, 27 , Heather Reich 18 , Jaime L. Sajecki 17 , Stephanie K. Sell 8 , Jennifer Strules 11 , Seth Thompson 17 , Frank van Manen 16 , Craig Whitman 16 , Ryan Williamson 28 , Frederic Winslow 12 , Christopher B. Kaelin 23 , Michael S. Marks 3,29 , and Gregory S. Barsh 5, 23 1 - Department of Biological Sciences, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA 38152 2 - Present Address: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA 77843-2475 3- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA 19104 4 - Institute for Melanin Chemistry, Fujita Health University, Toyoake, Japan 5 - HudsonAlpha, Huntsville, AL, USA 35806 6 - Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI USA 48824 7 - West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, Beckley, WV, USA 25801 8 - Division of Wildlife Conservation, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Douglas, AK, USA 99824 9 - The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Baton Rouge, LA, USA 70898 10 - Present address: Safari Club International Foundation, Tucson, AZ, USA 85745 11 - Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA 27695-7646 12 - New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Santa Fe, NM, USA 87507 13 - Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Grand Rapids, MN, USA 55744 (retired) 14 - IUCN SSC Bear Specialist Group 15 - National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park, WY, USA 82190-0168 16 - U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, Bozeman, MT, USA 59715 17 - Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, Verona, VA, USA 24482 18 - Nevada Department of Wildlife, Reno, NV, USA 89512 19 - National Park Service, Yosemite National Park Wildlife Management, Yosemite, CA, USA 95389 20 - Present Address: Wildlife Branch, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Rancho Cordova, CA, USA 95670 21 - National Park Service, Glacier Bay National Park, Gustavus, AK, USA 99826 22 - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Soldotna, AK, USA 99669 23 - Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA 94305 24 - North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Raleigh, NC, USA 27699 25 - Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Tallahassee, FL, USA 32399 . CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license available under a (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted August 13, 2022. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.12.503788 doi: bioRxiv preprint