Variation of cats under domestication: genetic assignment of domestic cats to breeds and worldwide random-bred populations.

Both cat breeders and the lay public have interests in the origins of their pets, not only in the genetic identity of the purebred individuals, but also in the historical origins of common household cats. The cat fancy is a relatively new institution with over 85% of its 40-50 breeds arising only in the past 75 years, primarily through selection on single-gene aesthetic traits. The short, yet intense cat breed history poses a significant challenge to the development of a genetic marker-based breed identification strategy. Using different breed assignment strategies and methods, 477 cats representing 29 fancy breeds were analysed with 38 short tandem repeats, 148 intergenic and five phenotypic single nucleotide polymorphisms. Results suggest the frequentist method of Paetkau (single nucleotide polymorphisms = 0.78, short tandem repeats = 0.88) surpasses the Bayesian method of Rannala and Mountain (single nucleotide polymorphisms = 0.56, short tandem repeats = 0.83) for accurate assignment of individuals to the correct breed. Additionally, a post-assignment verification step with the five phenotypic single nucleotide polymorphisms accurately identified between 0.31 and 0.58 of the misassigned individuals raising the sensitivity of assignment with the frequentist method to 0.89 and 0.92 for single nucleotide polymorphisms and short tandem repeats respectively. This study provides a novel multistep assignment strategy and suggests that, despite their short breed history and breed family groupings, a majority of cats can be assigned to their proper breed or population of origin, that is, race.

Feline non-repetitive mitochondrial DNA control region database for forensic evidence.

The domestic cat is the one of the most popular pets throughout the world. A by-product of owning, interacting with, or being in a household with a cat is the transfer of shed fur to clothing or personal objects. As trace evidence, transferred cat fur is a relatively untapped resource for forensic scientists. Both phenotypic and genotypic characteristics can be obtained from cat fur, but databases for neither aspect exist. Because cats incessantly groom, cat fur may have nucleated cells, not only in the hair bulb, but also as epithelial cells on the hair shaft deposited during the grooming process, thereby generally providing material for DNA profiling. To effectively exploit cat hair as a resource, representative databases must be established. The current study evaluates 402 bp of the mtDNA control region (CR) from 1394 cats, including cats from 25 distinct worldwide populations and 26 breeds. Eighty-three percent of the cats are represented by 12 major mitotypes. An additional 8.0% are clearly derived from the major mitotypes. Unique sequences are found in 7.5% of the cats. The overall genetic diversity for this data set is 0.8813±0.0046 with a random match probability of 11.8%. This region of the cat mtDNA has discriminatory power suitable for forensic application worldwide.

Iron deficiency anemia and cardiac mortality in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction undergoing coronary stenting.

AIM: The aim of this study was to assess cardiac mortality in patients with reduced ejection fraction (EF< or =45%) and anemia (Hb< or =12 g/dL) undergoing coronary stenting and to investigate whether iron-deficiency anemia influenced outcome when compared to non-anemic patients or patients with other types of anemia. METHODS: One hundred twenty consecutive patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) between April 2003 and December 2005 were identified and followed for a median of 30 months. Patients were divided into 2 groups, anemic (Hb< or =12 g/dL) and non-anemic. Anemic patients were then divided into 3 sub-groups based on laboratory analysis and anemia work-up: iron-deficiency, malignancy-associated, and anemia of chronic disease (including chronic kidney disease). Mortality rates and cause of death were retrieved using both the Social Security database and the hospital records. RESULTS: Thirty-one percent of patients had iron deficiency, 24% had a malignancy-associated anemia and 45% had anemia of chronic disease. Overall mortality was 12% of which 29% was cardiac death. All-cause and cardiac mortality were significantly higher in anemic vs. non-anemic patients, (31% vs. 6%, P<0.001, and 10% vs. 1%, P=0.016, respectively). Iron-deficiency anemia strongly predicted cardiac mortality (33% vs. 1% in non-anemic patients, P<0.001), while malignancy-associated anemia was the strongest predictor of non-cardiac death (57% vs. 4% in non-anemic patients, P<0.001). Anemia of chronic disease neither predicted cardiac nor non-cardiac death. CONCLUSIONS: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to show that iron-deficiency anemia is a strong predictor of cardiac death when compared to patients with other types of anemia or to non-anemic patients.

An international parentage and identification panel for the domestic cat (Felis catus).

Seventeen commercial and research laboratories participated in two comparison tests under the auspices of the International Society for Animal Genetics to develop an internationally tested, microsatellite-based parentage and identification panel for the domestic cat (Felis catus). Genetic marker selection was based on the polymorphism information content and allele ranges from seven random-bred populations (n = 261) from the USA, Europe and Brazil and eight breeds (n = 200) from the USA. Nineteen microsatellite markers were included in the comparison test and genotyped across the samples. Based on robustness and efficiency, nine autosomal microsatellite markers were ultimately selected as a single multiplex 'core' panel for cat identification and parentage testing. Most markers contained dinucleotide repeats. In addition to the autosomal markers, the panel included two gender-specific markers, amelogenin and zinc-finger XY, which produced genotypes for both the X and Y chromosomes. This international cat parentage and identification panel has a power of exclusion comparable to panels used in other species, ranging from 90.08% to 99.79% across breeds and 99.47% to 99.87% in random-bred cat populations.

The Tabby cat locus maps to feline chromosome B1.

The Tabby markings of the domestic cat are unique coat patterns for which no causative candidate gene has been inferred from other mammals. In this study, a genome scan was performed on a large pedigree of cats that segregated for Tabby coat markings, specifically for the Abyssinian (Ta-) and blotched (tbtb) phenotypes. There was linkage between the Tabby locus and eight markers on cat chromosome B1. The most significant linkage was between marker FCA700 and Tabby (Z = 7.56, theta = 0.03). Two additional markers in the region supported linkage, although not with significant LOD scores. Pairwise analysis of the markers supported the published genetic map of the cat, although additional meioses are required to refine the region. The linked markers cover a 17-cM region and flank an evolutionary breakpoint, suggesting that the Tabby gene has a homologue on either human chromosome 4 or 8. Alternatively, Tabby could be a unique locus in cats.

Reasons and limits of substrate activity of modified L-dNTP in DNA biosynthesis.

Theoretical and experimental analysis of interaction of modified D- and L- dNTP as substrates for template-dependent and template-independent DNA polymerases was performed. It is shown that if the modified nucleoside 5'-triphosphates do not contain a substituent in position 3' DNA chains can be extended by both strereoisomeric series with the same kinetic parameters. But the presence of even a 3'-hydroxy group in L-dNTP prevents their incorporation into the DNA chain.