Christopher B Kaelin, Kelly A McGowan, Anthony D Hutcherson, John M Delay, Jeremiah H Li, Sarah Kiener, Vidhya Jagannathan, Tosso Leeb, William J Murphy, Gregory S Barsh
The Bengal cat breed was developed from intercrosses between the Asian leopard cat, Prionailurus bengalensis, and the domestic cat, Felis catus, with a last common ancestor approximately 6 million years ago. Predicted to derive ∼94% of their genome from domestic cats, regions of the leopard cat genome are thought to account for the unique pelage traits and ornate color patterns of the Bengal breed, which are similar to those of ocelots and jaguars. We explore ancestry distribution and selection signatures in the Bengal breed by using reduced representation and whole-genome sequencing from 947 cats...
March 21, 2024: Current Biology: CB