It's been too long since I last posted for Cat Thursday. No excuses. But I looked up some interesting cats in the news stories and came across one from the BBC. Two teams of researchers from Japan and California have discovered the gene that makes ginger cats well, ginger! They wanted to find the gene to further their research into what might cause certain illnesses in cats.
The scientists hope solving the puzzle could also help shed light on whether orange coloured cats are at increased risk of certain health conditions.
It has been known for decades that it is genetics that gives orange tabby cats their distinctive colouring, but exactly where in the genetic code has evaded scientists till now.
Two teams of scientists at Kyushu University in Japan and Stanford University in the US have now revealed the mystery in simultaneous papers published on Thursday.
What the teams found was that in the cells responsible for giving a cat its skin, hair follicles and eyes their colour - melanocytes - one gene, ARHGAP36, was much more active.
Genes are made up of pieces of DNA which give instructions to a cat's cells, like other living creatures, on how to function.
By comparing the DNA from dozens of cats with and without orange fur they found that those with ginger colouring had a section of DNA code missing within this ARHGAP36 gene.
Without this DNA the activity of the ARHGAP36 is not suppressed i.e. it is more active. The scientists believe that the gene instructs those melanocytes to produce lighter pigment.
Really interesting article. Science trucks on for our kitties!
