🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

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 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 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

Domestication reshaped cat behavior, reducing fear of humans and increasing tolerance and sociability, and genetics is beginning to reveal the underlying changes. This overview surveys evidence that s…

Despite descending from wildcats only thousands of years ago, domestic cats differ subtly in genetics and behavior, and characterizing this divergence illuminates the domestication process. This overv…

Several popular domestic cat breeds were created by crossing house cats with wild felid species, including the Bengal from the Asian leopard cat, the Savannah from the serval, and the Chausie from the…

Several striking morphological variants in domestic cats have known genetic bases, including the taillessness of the Manx cat and extra toes in polydactyl cats. This overview surveys the discovery tha…

The Chinese mountain cat, a poorly known felid endemic to the Tibetan Plateau region, has been the subject of debate over whether it is a distinct species, a wildcat subspecies, and whether it contrib…

The European wildcat faces a genetic threat from interbreeding with free-ranging domestic cats, which can erode the wild population's distinct genome through introgression. This overview surveys genet…

The Felis lineage contains the domestic cat and its closest wild relatives, including the European wildcat, the African and Near Eastern wildcat, the sand cat, the jungle cat, the black-footed cat, an…

The tabby patterns of cats, mackerel stripes versus blotched swirls, arise from the interaction of genes that establish a prepattern in the developing skin and then translate it into dark and light ha…

The domestic cat harbors more than two hundred inherited disorders, many of which mirror human genetic diseases, making it a valuable biomedical model. This overview surveys how feline genetics has il…

Most domestic cats are random-bred, but a few dozen recognized breeds have been developed over the past century, providing a resource for genetic study. This overview surveys research using genome-wid…

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 mappe…

Christopher B. Kaelin, Gregory S. Barsh, et al. · Science · 2012

This study traced the ancestry of the domestic cat by sampling wildcats across their range and comparing mitochondrial DNA from hundreds of wild and domestic individuals. The authors showed that all d…

Carlos A. Driscoll, Marilyn Menotti-Raymond, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · Science · 2007