Research reveals how cats get their stripes

It is very interesting that very rare of us have ever thought how the cats got their stripes. Many of us neglected this because we would have no answer of such an answer.

But a recent research done by scientists revealed that how the cats got their stripes. The new study reveals a mutation shared by the housecats and cheetahs, which may explain how the cat got its stripes.

The sharp evenly spaced stripes of the tabby cat are among the most common of coat patterns. To pinpoint the gene responsible for the difference, an international team of researchers scanned the genomes of feral cats that had either stripes or blotches. Their search led to an unnamed gene about which little is known except that it produces an enzyme that cuts up nearby proteins.

The researchers found that every blotched tabby had mutations in both copies of this gene, whereas every striped cat had at least one copy without the mutation. They then found the distinctive mutations in the same gene among DNA samples from a pedigreed family of king cheetahs, conforming their suspicious that mutations in the gene which they dubbed, turned ordinary stripes into the more regal blotches.