image: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/files/2012/09/kaelin6HR_470x251_scaled_cropp.jpg
image: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/files/2012/09/kaelin6HR.jpg
A genetic mutation determines whether a tabby cat is a mackerel (top row) or blotched (bottom row). (Image courtesy of Helmi Flick)
Tabby may be a colloquial term for a female kitty, but it’s more properly the name for the common stripey pattern on a domestic cat’s coat. Those tabby markings come in two main varieties: proper vertical stripes of dark on a light background, known as the mackerel pattern, and a blotched variety consisting of less-organized, dark whorls. Now scientists from Stanford University and elsewhere have identified the gene that determines whether a tabby is mackerel or blotched and found that the same gene also can make a cheetah a king. The study appears in today’s issue of Science.
“We were motivated by a basic question: How do periodic patterns like stripes and spots in mammals arise?” study co-author Gregory Barsh, an investigator at HudsonAlpha and a Stanford geneticist, said in a press release. “Until now, there’s been no obvious biological explanation for cheetah spots or the stripes on tigers, zebras or even the ordinary house cat.”