Specifying and Sustaining Pigmentation Patterns in Domestic and Wild Cats

This study identified the gene responsible for the dramatic blotched coat of the king cheetah and the related variation between mackerel and blotched tabby patterns in domestic cats. The authors mapped both traits to the transmembrane aminopeptidase gene Taqpep and showed that loss-of-function variants convert narrow stripes into broad blotches and stripes, while the gene Edn3 controls the dark versus light coloring of the pattern elements. The king cheetah, once thought to be a separate species, was confirmed to be a single-gene coat variant. The work elegantly linked a charismatic wild-cat phenotype to the same developmental machinery that patterns ordinary house cats.