Ancestry dynamics and trait selection in a designer cat breed.

Kaelin, Christopher B; McGowan, Kelly A; Hutcherson, Anthony D; Delay, John M; Li, Jeremiah H; Kiener, Sarah; Jagannathan, Vidhya; Leeb, Tosso; Murphy, William J; Barsh, Gregory S (2024). Ancestry dynamics and trait selection in a designer cat breed. Current biology, 34(7), 1506-1518.e7. Cell Press 10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.075

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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. The mean proportion of leopard cat DNA in the Bengal breed is 3.48%, lower than predicted from breed history, and is broadly distributed, covering 93% of the Bengal genome. Overall, leopard cat introgressions do not show strong signatures of selection across the Bengal breed. However, two popular color traits in Bengal cats, charcoal and pheomelanin intensity, are explained by selection of leopard cat genes whose expression is reduced in a domestic cat background, consistent with genetic incompatibility resulting from hybridization. We characterize several selective sweeps in the Bengal genome that harbor candidate genes for pelage and color pattern and that are associated with domestic, rather than leopard, cat haplotypes. We identify the molecular and phenotypic basis of one selective sweep as reduced expression of the Fgfr2 gene, which underlies glitter, a trait desired by breeders that affects hair texture and light reflectivity.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

09 Interdisciplinary Units > Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Platform
05 Veterinary Medicine > Research Foci > DermFocus
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Institute of Genetics
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH)

UniBE Contributor:

Kiener, Sarah, Jagannathan, Vidya, Leeb, Tosso

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology)
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1879-0445

Publisher:

Cell Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

27 Mar 2024 11:35

Last Modified:

11 Apr 2024 00:17

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.075

PubMed ID:

38531359

Uncontrolled Keywords:

genetic incompatibility genome-wide association interspecies hybridization introgression pigmentation pathways

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/194909

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/194909

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