Uncovering insights on the feline genome to aid future disease studies is the driving force behind recent research.
The Morris Animal Foundation-funded study delves into various cat species’ entire DNA sequence (genome), uncovering novel perspectives on domestic and wild cat evolution. This new work, published in Nature Genetics, highlights distinct genetic changes and will be a critical tool for researchers investigating feline diseases and characteristics.
“This is an ongoing effort because it’s very difficult to fill in the missing gaps in the genome sequence, and those gaps aren’t just junk,” says William Murphy, PhD, the study’s principal investigator and professor of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences at Texas A&M University.
During the study, Dr. Murphy and his team have identified fewer segmental duplications– duplicated blocks of genomic DNA–in cats compared to other mammal groups while also uncovering numerous variances exist in feline DNA.
“This initial study was just scratching the surface,” Murphy says, adding these insights are crucial for those studying feline diseases, behavior, and conservation. “Now we’re going to be able to use this to go in and start determining the function of parts of the domestic cat genome that were missing before.”
Murphy says the feline genome is not yet fully gapless, but ongoing refinements to the research aim to achieve a comprehensive, telomere-to-telomere feline genome–essential to uncover crucial genetic information.
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