Coat of Calico Cats may Offer Insight into Human Genetics

For many cat lovers, the distinct three-toned calico cat might just be your favorite pet. Yet did you know these typically female felines could help scientists better understand human DNA?

A recent study shows that a silencing gene responsible for the animal's peculiarly spotted coat could help researchers decipher a bit more about our genetics.

According to researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, their unique orange-white-and-black fur is the result of a silencing or inaction of one of their two x chromosomes.

Researchers said they believe that the cells in these female mammals carry two copies of the X chromosome: One from the mother and one from the father. However, cells only require one active X chromosome and the second is typically turned off.

"Uncovering how only one X chromosome is inactivated will help explain the whole process of epigenetic control, meaning the way changes in gene activity can be inherited without changing the DNA code," said Elizabeth a postdoctoral fellow in the anatomy department at UCSF, said in an American Institute of Physics, via a press release. "It can help answer other questions such as if and how traits like obesity can be passed down through generations."

Researchers found that calico cats carry an orange-fur-color gene through their X chromosomes and a black-fur-gene on the other. However, the random silencing of one of the X chromosomes found in each cells is the cause for creation of its spotted coat.

Though scientist are still struggling to determine how a cell actually turns off a chromosome, they are actively working to understand how certain genes can be switched on of and off without affecting underlying DNA.

"Uncovering how only one X chromosome is inactivated will help explain the whole process of 'epigenetic control,' meaning the way changes in gene activity can be inherited without changing the DNA code," Smith added, via the release. "It can help answer other questions, such as if and how traits like obesity can be passed down through generations."

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These findings are scheduled to be presented at the Biophysical Society's annual meeting in San Francisco.