How wild is the Bengal cat genome?

By Sarah Sharman, PhD 

If you’re questioning who holds the title of home cat royalty, look no additional than the gorgeous Bengal breed. They take the prize for the most well-liked breed in The International Cat Association (TICA) registry because of their distinctive, unique look and affectionate attraction of a beloved home companion. Despite their prime marks amongst cat lovers, the Bengal breed has been round for lower than a century, which is the blink of a watch in comparison with most home cats which were round for 1000’s of years. 

Bengal cats are a hybrid breed created within the Nineteen Sixties by crossing home cats (Felis catus) with Asian leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis), a small noticed wild cat species from Asia. These two species had a final frequent ancestor about 6 million years in the past; genetic variations between the 2 species are larger than between people and chimpanzees! 

Bengals have been formally acknowledged as a brand new breed by TICA in 1986 and are the one home cats that may have rosettes just like the markings on leopards, jaguars, and ocelots. But all Bengal coats are usually not created equal; the preliminary hybridization of home and wild cats adopted by the selective breeding of Bengals with each other for desired traits launched an array of recent coat colours and patterns. 

Most folks attribute the distinctive coloration and coat traits of Bengals to particular DNA from its wild and distantly associated felid ancestor. A new examine printed in Current Biology delves into the fascinating genetics behind these fascinating creatures, offers some genetic surprises, and divulges some genetic secrets and techniques that underlie their distinctive look. 

A group effort to demystify Bengal ancestry 

Greg Barsh, MD, PhD, Faculty Investigator at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and Professor of Genetics at Stanford University, is an skilled within the genetics of feline coat coloration and patterning. He and his group, led by Chris Kaelin, PhD, and Kelly McGowan, MD, PhD, sought to dive into Bengal cat ancestry and pinpoint the genetics of well-liked coloration traits. 

“Cats are fantastic companions,” Barsh defined, “but our interests go beyond their beautiful and exotic appearance. Like the amazing variation among different dog breeds, artificial selection can be a very powerful engine to create morphologic diversity. What’s different about Bengal cats from dogs is the raw genetic material–dogs trace their heritage to wolves from tens of thousands of years ago. In contrast, Bengal cats trace their heritage to completely different species from millions of years ago. Understanding how these distantly related genomes interact is a general question that applies to any situation when different species exchange genes, from crops to aquaculture to humans and Neandertals.”  

The Bengal breed was began about 60 years in the past by a small variety of cat fans and has grown tremendously. Today, there are tons of of 1000’s of registered cats produced by greater than 2000 breeders. Over the final 60 years, many breeders have labored to develop traits which can be much like wild cats, like ocelots, tigers, or leopards.

To dive into the genetics of Bengal cats, the group wanted access to DNA from numerous Bengal cats. They turned to the breeding group, visiting cat exhibits and breed membership conferences, speaking about genetics and evolution, and asking breeders to take part within the analysis. Chris Kaelin, the lead creator of the examine, mentioned, “Cat fanciers and breeders are very interested in the research, in part because they want to know more about the science behind artificial selection, and in part, because they want to know if our results can help them produce cats with rosettes, stripes, or other exotic markings.” Kaelin additionally commented, “This is a great example of citizen science–our work has been enabled by the willingness of breeders to participate, and we share our results with the community.” 

Enrolling a cat within the Bengal analysis examine requires nothing greater than a cheek swab for a DNA pattern, pictures of each side of the cat, and any information about pedigree or registration. The group has been engaged on the challenge for a number of years and has collected practically 3000 DNA samples.

One of the findings to emerge from the work is that Asian leopard DNA contributes, on common, just a few p.c to Bengal breed DNA and, surprisingly, there isn’t one or perhaps a few Asian leopard genes that trigger the distinctive Bengal look. “One of the original motivations for bringing together DNA from the two species was to select for Asian leopard DNA that would recapitulate the appearance of an exotic wild cat in a companion animal,” mentioned Kaelin. “It turns out that some of the most striking examples of selection in the breed are for traits that were already present, but very rare, in domestic cats.” 

Domestic cat DNA is answerable for ‘glittery’ Bengal coats

As the group describes of their paper, the “glitter” coat in Bengal cats exemplifies that phenomenon. Glitter does not contain any precise glitter particles however slightly a novel construction of individual hairs that makes the fur shiny and comfortable. It is a extremely popular trait within the Bengal breed that the group found was attributable to a mutation in a gene referred to as Fgfr2.  “Fgfr2 is a gene found in all mammals that is important for embryonic development and organogenesis,” mentioned McGowan. “Our results show that while a complete loss of Fgfr2 is lethal, a moderate reduction causes a desirable trait to manifest mainly in the hair.”

The outcomes from this examine provide useful data for cat lovers in addition to scientists extra typically in hybridization and choice. “Human DNA of European or Asian ancestry contains a small fraction of Neandertal DNA that was caused by hybridization between the two species after humans migrated out of Africa,” mentioned Barsh. “In some ways, Bengal cats are similar, except the distance between the two hybridizing species is much greater and the time since hybridization is much less.” From that perspective, studying extra about Bengal cats may inform us extra about ourselves. 

Citation: Kaelin et al., Ancestry dynamics and trait choice in a designer cat breed, Current Biology (2024),