Stripes on your tabby cat? Or blotches? Scientists ID the gene behind those distinct patterns (WaPo)
NEW YORK — How does a tabby cat earn its stripes? With the right DNA.
Scientists say they’ve found the gene that sets the common tabby pattern — stripes or blotches.
It’s one of several genes that collaborate to create the distinctive design of a cat’s coat, and it’s the first of the pattern genes to be identified.
Cats with narrow stripes, the so-called “mackerel” pattern, have a working copy of the gene. But if a mutation turns the gene off, the cat ends up with the blotchy “classic” pattern, researchers reported online Thursday in the journal Science.
It’s called “classic” because “cat lovers really like the blotched pattern,” said one of the authors, Greg Barsh. He works at both Stanford University and the HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology in Huntsville, Ala.
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more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/stripes-on-your-tabby-cat-or-blotches-scientists-id-the-gene-behind-those-distinct-patterns/2012/09/20/e2a86b08-034c-11e2-9132-f2750cd65f97_story.html
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My tabby is blotched. The one across the street is mackerel & drives the dog crazy! 
