New research led by Texas A&M University adn the University of Missouri scientists explains how cats, including domestic cats, lions, tigers, Geoffroy’s cats and Asian leopard cats, evolved into different species and sheds light on how different genetic changes in cats relate to survival abilities like the ability to smell prey.
“Our goal was to better understand how cats evolved and the genetic basis of the trait differences between cat species,” said Professor Bill Murphy, a researcher at Texas A&M University.
“We wanted to take advantage of some new technologies that allow us to create more complete cat genomic maps.”
Among the things Professor Murphy and colleagues were trying to better understand is why cat chromosomes — cellular structures containing the genetic information for traits like fur color, size, and sensory abilities — are more stable than in other mammal groups.
“We’ve known for a while now that cat chromosomes across species are very similar to each other. For example, the chromosomes of lions and domestic cats hardly differ at all,” Professor Murphy said.
“There appear to be far fewer duplications, rearrangements, and other types of variation than what are commonly found in great apes.”
In the primate order, this kind of genetic variation has led to the evolution of different species — including humans and great apes.
“The great ape genomes tend to break and rearrange, and even human genomes have very unstable regions. These variations may predispose certain individuals to have genetic conditions, like autism and other neurological disorders,” Professor Murphy said.
The key to this variation between cats and apes appears to be the frequency of something called segmental duplications.
“Primate genome researchers have been able to link these segmental duplications to chromosome rearrangements. The more segmental duplications you have in your DNA, the more likely the chromosomes are to rearrange, etc.,”…
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