Research overview: genome architecture and repetitive elements in cats

Beyond genes, the architecture of felid genomes, including repetitive elements, transposons, and structural variants, shapes evolution and complicates assembly. This overview surveys the composition of cat genomes, the families of mobile elements they contain, the conserved synteny that makes cats a reference for mammalian genome structure, and the structural variants increasingly revealed by long-read sequencing. It discusses how repetitive content affects assembly quality and the detection of functional variation, the role of transposable elements in generating phenotypic novelty such as coat-color variants, and how a fuller view of genome architecture deepens comparative and conservation genomics across the cat family.