🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The IUCN Cat Specialist Group convened a Cat Classification Task Force to reconcile decades of conflicting felid taxonomy with modern genetic and morphological evidence. The resulting consensus recogn…

Andrew C. Kitchener, Christiane Breitenmoser-Wursten, Eduardo Eizirik, et al. (Cat Classification Task Force) · Cat News Special Issue · 2017

This study examined the temperature-sensitive coloration of pointed cats, such as the Siamese and Burmese, and the rare full albino, mapping these phenotypes to variants in the tyrosinase gene that co…

Deborah L. Imes, Leslie A. Lyons, et al. · Animal Genetics · 2006

This study produced an improved domestic cat genome assembly and compared it with wildcats and other mammals to find molecular footprints of domestication. The authors identified selection signals in…

Michael J. Montague, Wesley C. Warren, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2014

This study generated a high-quality genome of the leopard and compared it across the dietary spectrum, contrasting strict carnivores like cats with omnivores and herbivores to identify the genomic bas…

Soonok Kim, Yun Sung Cho, Jong Bhak, et al. · Genome Biology · 2016

This study documented the genetic and physiological crisis of the Florida panther, a puma population isolated and reduced to a few dozen animals in southern Florida. The authors reported very low gene…

Melody E. Roelke, Janice S. Martenson, Stephen J. O'Brien · Current Biology · 1993

Building on earlier evidence of cheetah monomorphism, this study used hypervariable minisatellite and other molecular markers to estimate when the cheetah's genetic diversity collapsed. The analysis p…

Marilyn Menotti-Raymond, Stephen J. O'Brien · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 1993

This study identified the molecular cause of the dominant white and white-spotting coat patterns in domestic cats, mapping both to the KIT gene that governs the migration of pigment-cell precursors du…

Victor A. David, Marilyn Menotti-Raymond, et al. · G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics · 2014

This study recovered mitochondrial genomes from the extinct scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium using ancient DNA, including a specimen from the permafrost, to place the sabertooths relative to living ca…

Johanna L. A. Paijmans, Michael Hofreiter, Ross Barnett, et al. · Current Biology · 2017

This foundational paper reported that the cheetah carries extraordinarily low genetic variation across allozyme and other molecular markers, far below that of typical outbred mammals. The authors docu…

Stephen J. O'Brien, David E. Wildt, David Goldman, Carl R. Merril, Mitchell Bush · Science · 1985

This study evaluated the landmark 1995 intervention in which eight female Texas pumas were released into Florida to counteract the inbreeding crisis of the endangered Florida panther. Tracking the pop…

Warren E. Johnson, David P. Onorato, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · Science · 2010

This study sequenced genomes from tigers representing multiple subspecies to reconstruct their demographic history and detect local adaptation. The authors found that tigers share a recent common ance…

Yue-Chen Liu, Shu-Jin Luo, et al. · Current Biology · 2018

This study analyzed genomes across the genus Panthera and found pervasive evidence of ancient gene flow among the big-cat lineages, demonstrating that their evolution was reticulate rather than strict…

Henrique V. Figueiro, Eduardo Eizirik, et al. · Science Advances · 2017

This study used mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites across the puma's vast range from Canada to Patagonia to reconstruct the species' population history. The authors found surprisingly low genetic d…

Melanie Culver, Warren E. Johnson, Jill Pecon-Slattery, Stephen J. O'Brien · Journal of Heredity · 2000

This study sequenced genomes of Bengal tigers from across India, home to most of the world's wild tigers, to assess genetic diversity, structure, and inbreeding among populations. The authors found th…

Anubhab Khan, Uma Ramakrishnan, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021

This study sequenced and analyzed the cheetah genome, providing molecular confirmation of the species' exceptional genetic impoverishment. The authors reported very low genome-wide heterozygosity, ext…

Pavel Dobrynin, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · Genome Biology · 2015

This study extended earlier work on feline melanism by surveying agouti signaling protein and melanocortin-1 receptor variation across wild cat species, including the leopard. The authors characterize…

Alexsandra Schneider, Eduardo Eizirik, et al. · PLoS ONE · 2012

This paper reported the first draft genome of the domestic cat, sequenced at modest coverage from an Abyssinian cat named Cinnamon. Despite the light sequencing, the authors leveraged comparative mapp…

Joan U. Pontius, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · Genome Research · 2007

This influential study identified the molecular basis of black coats across multiple cat species and showed that melanism evolved independently several times in the family. The authors found that mela…

Eduardo Eizirik, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · Current Biology · 2003

Using genome-wide data, this study showed that the felid family tree is not a simple bifurcating set of clean splits but is laced with signals of ancient interspecific hybridization. The authors docum…

Gang Li, Brian W. Davis, Eduardo Eizirik, William J. Murphy · Genome Research · 2016

This study sampled tigers from across their range and used mitochondrial and microsatellite markers to test whether the traditional subspecies are genetically distinct. The authors found support for s…

Shu-Jin Luo, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · PLoS Biology · 2004

This study sequenced complete genomes of pumas from across the Americas to examine how range-wide demographic history shaped genetic load and diversity. The authors confirmed the deep divergence betwe…

Nedda F. Saremi, Beth Shapiro, et al. · Nature Communications · 2019

The extinct American cheetah of the genus Miracinonyx superficially resembled the living cheetah, with adaptations for fast pursuit of swift prey such as the pronghorn. This overview surveys genetic a…

Complementing maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome markers trace paternal lineages and reveal male-specific patterns of dispersal and mating in cats. This overview surveys how feline Y…

Decades of feline genetics have assembled a catalog of genes controlling color, pattern, and hair properties in cats, including agouti, melanocortin-1 receptor, the brown locus, dilution, dominant whi…

Beyond confounding phylogenies, introgression can transfer beneficial alleles between species, a process termed adaptive introgression. This overview surveys evidence in cats that gene flow during the…

The Barbary lion of North Africa, extinct in the wild by the mid-twentieth century, was long thought to be a uniquely large and dark-maned subspecies. This overview surveys genetic work on museum spec…

Smilodon, the famous sabertoothed cat of the Americas, is known from abundant fossils such as those at the La Brea tar pits, but its DNA has been difficult to recover from warm-climate deposits. This…

Recovering DNA from extinct cats and historical museum specimens requires specialized techniques to cope with degraded, fragmented, and contaminated genetic material. This overview surveys how researc…

The cave lion, Panthera spelaea, ranged across Ice Age Eurasia and Beringia and is known from abundant remains and even mummified cubs preserved in permafrost. This overview surveys ancient-DNA studie…

The story of how cats joined human society blends zooarchaeology with molecular genetics. This overview surveys evidence from early Neolithic Cyprus, where a cat was buried beside a human roughly nine…