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TODAY THEY WERE ADOPTED
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Miss Marigold and her brothers had their yearly checkup and boosters a couple of days ago. My son snapped this magnificent portrait of her! #marigoldmyward #catsofinstagram #caramelripplecat (at Anderson Animal Hospital and Wellness Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfm7cYCreNS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
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[Image Source]
Bengal Cat Coats Are Less Wild Than They Look, Genetic Study Finds
Bengal cats are prized for their appearance; the exotically marbled and spotted coats of these domestic pets make them look like small, sleek jungle cats. But the origin of those coats — assumed to come from the genes of Asian leopard cats that were bred with house cats — turns out to be less exotic.
Stanford Medicine researchers, in collaboration with Bengal cat breeders, have discovered that the Bengal cats’ iridescent sheen and leopard-like patterns can be traced to domestic cat genes that were aggressively selected for after the cats were bred with wild cats.
“Most of the DNA changes that underlie the unique appearance of the Bengal cat breed have always been present in domestic cats,” said Gregory Barsh, MD, PhD, an emeritus professor of genetics. “It was really the power of breeding that brought them out.”
For a study published online March 25 in Current Biology, Barsh and his colleagues analyzed genes collected from nearly 1,000 Bengal cats over the course of 15 years. Barsh is the senior author of the paper, and senior scientist Christopher Kaelin, PhD, is the lead author.
The results shed light not only on the Bengal cat’s coat but also help answer broader questions about how appearance is encoded in genetics and how different genes work together to yield colors, patterns and physical features.
Wild Origins
Barsh and his colleagues, including Kaelin, use cats and other animals to study the genetics of physical features. In previous studies, they identified genes responsible for the color coat variation in tabby cats and for the unique markings on the Abyssinian cat.
“The big-picture question is how genetic variation leads to variation in appearance,” Barsh said.
“This is a question that has all kinds of implications for different species, but we think that cats offer an especially tractable way to study it.”
From the 1960s through the 1980s, breeders, led by biologist Jean Mills, crossed the wild Asian leopard cat species Prionailurus bengalensis with domestic cats to create a new, visually striking cat breed. Over many generations, the cats with the desired physical characteristics and temperaments were progressively selected and bred. By 1986, the Bengal cat was recognized as its own new breed by the International Cat Association.
Barsh and Kaelin saw Bengals — with their recent genetic origin and unique appearance — as a particularly interesting way to study how genetic variation causes diversity in form, color and pattern. In 2008, they began reaching out to cat breeders, attending cat shows, and collecting cheek swabs and photographs of Bengal cats.
Genetic Surprises
The Stanford Medicine team suspected that Bengal cats might give them an accessible way to probe the genetics of wild cat colors and patterns that had evolved naturally. But after sequencing 947 Bengal cat genomes, they found something surprising: There were no parts of the wild Asian leopard cat genomes that were found in all Bengal cats.
“Nearly every Bengal cat breeder and owner has this idea that the distinctive look of the domestic Bengal cat must have come from leopard cats,” Barsh said. “Our work suggests that’s not the case.”
Instead, the genetic signatures suggested that the unique appearance of Bengals was a result of variations in genes that had already been present in domestic cats.
The team found something similar when they looked specifically at “glitter”: About 60% of all Bengal cats have particularly soft, iridescent fur that glitters like gold in the sunlight. A mutation in the gene Fgfr2, they showed, is responsible for glitter and comes not from leopard cats but from domestic cats. Glitter and the underlying Fgfr2 mutation are nearly specific to Bengal cats. Interestingly, the mutation reduces the activity of the protein encoded by Fgfr2, rather than rendering it inactive as many mutations do. This sheds light on how variations in genes can cause subtle changes in appearance, the researchers said.
Finally, Barsh and Kaelin’s group analyzed the genetics of “charcoal” Bengals, a rare subset of the breed with darker coloring. They uncovered a leopard cat gene linked to the charcoal color, but only when it was combined with domestic cat genome. The leopard cat gene, known as Asip, essentially doesn’t work as well when it’s mixed with the domestic genes — a phenomenon known as genomic incompatibility. So, in leopard cats, Asip doesn’t cause charcoal coloring, but the same gene in domestic cats does.
“Hybridization between different species can happen naturally and is responsible for the small amount of Neandertal DNA found in many human genomes," Barsh explained. “But the wild leopard cat and the domestic cat are more different from each other than humans are from chimpanzees, and it’s remarkable to see how DNA from these distantly related species can exist and work together in a popular companion animal.”
A Boost for Biology and Breeders
A better understanding of the genetic origins of Bengal cat traits is already helping Bengal breeders fine-tune the way they breed animals to create new colors and patterns. Over the past 15 years, Barsh and Kaelin have worked closely with Bengal cat organizations and given talks at cat shows. They often return ancestry and genetic data to owners to help guide their breeding.
“Breeders are extremely interested in our data,” Kaelin said. “They not only want to contribute their cats’ DNA but they also want to be involved and help analyze data and hear about our results. It’s been a great collaboration and a true example of citizen science.”
The researchers say there are lessons to be learned in just how powerful artificial selection can be, as the Bengal cat coats could probably have been selected for without the help of the Asian leopard cat.
“People have this idea that we have to get access to these distantly related animals to breed beautiful individuals and designer animals,” Barsh said. “But it turns out all the diversity was already there waiting in the domestic cat genome.”
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As Easter gets closer, please remember and spread the word that lilies are DEADLY for cats. "The entire lily plant is toxic: the stem, leaves, flowers, pollen, and even the water in a vase. Eating just a small amount of a leaf or flower petal, licking a few pollen grains off its fur while grooming, or drinking the water from the vase can cause your cat to develop fatal kidney failure in less than 3 days." Source and more info.
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Kepler says thank you for sharing so many of his fellow bengals, we love them very much ❤️
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I added 6 more to the queue just for Kepler and his little rainbow notebook. Give him a smooch right on his wittle nose for me!
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Mythos de Bengalina
🐱 SBT Bengal [Bengal Cat Terms]
📸 Röhl André [Hazel Glare]
🎨 Blue Rosetted Tabby
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Mythos de Bengalina
🐱 SBT Bengal [Bengal Cat Terms]
📸 Röhl André [Hazel Glare]
🎨 Blue Rosetted Tabby
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I am not gonna lie tik tok as a platform scares me. It is a complete mystery to me. My social media knowledge stopped somewhere in like 2016 and I haven’t looked at new things since. 😂
That being said I could probably figure out YouTube shorts… thank you for the suggestion!
I’d like to do more clicker training with the boys this summer, and I’m low-key considering starting a YouTube channel to document their process. 🤔
Pros: I can see their improvement, and I can practice my video editing. Used to love making videos for fun as a kid but I haven’t really kept up with it.
Cons: YouTube
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what do you mean by "99.99% of domestic cats have no breed ancestry"? surely they come from something? or is General Cat a thing?? i am so curious
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this is an African wildcat. it’s domestic relative, Felis catus, is what we have in our houses. THAT is where all cats come from. 
when we spread from Africa, so did domesticated cats. in different countries/climates, feral populations developed traits to help them survive, or genetic quirks unique to the region (the name for this is landrace = local genetically related population adapted to that particular landscape). as an example, on the Isle of Man a genetic quirk of the population is the occasional shortened or ‘Manx-type’ tail.
then Animal Fancy popped into existence a couple hundred years ago as a hobby, and people started deliberately breeding cats with unusual or exaggerated traits to win ribbons at conventions. this is when ‘breeds’ became a thing - cats with suitable traits were plucked from randombred populations to be incorporated into closed and registered genetic groups. and so (to go back to that earlier example) a handful of short-tailed landrace cats from the Isle of Man were selected by cat fanciers to become a breed, the Manx cat.
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now keep in mind, that doesn’t automatically make all randombred cats on the Isle of Man part of the Manx breed! only the select individuals chosen as the genetic foundation + their pedigreed ancestors would be considered Manx.
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that’s why the cat pictured above, despite sharing a shortened tail + place of origin with Manx cats, has no breed origin.
any modern cat breeder worth their salt will require a spay/neuter contract when selling kittens, so there isn’t much genetic mixing between purebred and randombred populations. the purebred population of cats is extremely small, and the randombred population unfathomably massive, so yes: 99.99% of cats have no breed origin.
if you don't know the direct ancestry of your adopted/rescued cat it is EXTREMELY unlikely for it to be anything other than randombred, even if it shares traits with a breed. most colourations/mutations/traits found in breeds also exist in randombred populations. and yes, this post is an extremely long-winded way of saying your large fluffy cat is not part Maine Coon.
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I’d like to do more clicker training with the boys this summer, and I’m low-key considering starting a YouTube channel to document their process. 🤔
Pros: I can see their improvement, and I can practice my video editing. Used to love making videos for fun as a kid but I haven’t really kept up with it.
Cons: YouTube
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I know I’ve talked about purebred vs domestic cats here and there on this blog, but I thought I would bring it up again after finding this fantastic article. Seriously, go check it out. 
I often see a lot of people asking “what breed is my cat?” or stating that they think their cat is a a maine coon or other breed on a few vague traits. This stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of cat breeds and how they were formed, and how differently cats were domesticated compared to dogs, which seems to be our “standard” when it comes to domestication.
Rather than being selectively bred and domesticated for thousands of years like dogs, cats domesticated themselves. They were not chosen for specific traits like herding or guarding or hunting; they kept mice away, and so they were allowed to stick around. Humans hardly had anything to do with breeding cats selectively until about 150 years ago. Because of this, the type of cat that all breeds stem from is very much still around in the world’s domestic cat population. 
Current cat breeds (maine coon, russian blue, ragdoll, etc) were developed by selectively breeding domestic cats chosen for particular traits (a breed standard). These selectively bred “purebred” or “pedigree” cats are a minority, and most cats existing outside of catteries are domestic cats that have zero human intervention in their breeding or bloodlines. 
This means that the large majority of cats found on the streets, in shelters, or in homes are domestic cats that were not bred with human intervention. Sure, there may be the occasional purebred cat that escapes or is dumped into a feral colony, but those cats are few and far between. About 1-3% of cats in the entire world are considered pedigreed cats, whereas 97-99% are not, so chances of finding a purebred cat out on the streets would be pretty slim. Due to pedigree cat breeds being so new, if a purebred cat was introduced to a colony and survived to breed, it would lose its purebred traits within a few generations rather than retaining them as a dog might. 
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With these chances it is incredibly unlikely for a cat rescued from the streets or acquired somewhere else (petstore, kijiji, farm, etc) to be an actual breed of cat. If your cat wasn’t from a cattery and doesn’t have papers, it is almost certainly not a purebred cat. 
Labelling your cat as a breed it isn’t can make it difficult to address the needs of your cat. Certain traits (anxiety, aggression, health problems, obesity, etc) could be written off as a “breed trait” in your cat when it isn’t and should be addressed to ensure your cat is happy and healthy. A cat could suffer for being wrongly labelled as a purebred.
Cats don’t need to be a fancy breed in order to be unique, special, and loved. Love and be proud of the cat you have and not the one you wish you had. Chances are your cat is pretty awesome, purebred or not. 
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NEKO ATSUME 2
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right now on earth there’s a kindly old stray tomcat who just got adopted and he’s receiving enough food to fill his belly for the first time in his entire life and he’s so so so happy and he doesn’t even know that it’s going to be like this forever :)
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