They found a clue in fetal cat tissue that seemed to foreshadow fur color: a thickening of the skin tissue in certain areas. “We knew from studying domestic cats that there were other genes that contributed to color pattern formation we just didn’t know what they were,” Barsh said. It’s the same gene that accounts for the difference between cheetahs and king cheetahs, which have thicker, more prominent fur patterns. The researchers previously identified a different gene that controls coat color variation in tabby cats. Research scientists Christopher Kaelin, PhD, and Kelly McGowan, MD, PhD, are co-lead authors. The researchers’ findings were published Sept. “The color patterns and variability that you see in animals like tigers, cheetahs and zebras prompted some central questions for us: What are the developmental genetic mechanisms and the cellular mechanisms that give rise to these patterns and how have they been altered during mammalian evolution to give rise to the amazing diversity of shape and form we see today?”īarsh and his team have answered part of that question: They have identified a gene, DKK4, that helps regulate the early development of the different fur patterns in domestic cats. DKK4, the team suspects, is likely involved in color patterns in all cats and perhaps other mammals, too.
“Color patterns are one of these unsolved biological mysteries there’s no go-to model organism to study it - mice don’t have stripes or spots,” said Gregory Barsh, MD, PhD, professor emeritus of genetics. But Stanford Medicine researchers have discovered a specific gene that drives much of the development of the stripes, blotches and spots that decorate all feline fur. Your sedentary lap cat may not seem to share many similarities with its fierce relatives prowling the African savanna.
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