Housecat's Genes Traced to the Middle East

Jan. 31, 2008 -- The roots of the domesticated cat's family tree all converge in the Middle East, with many surprising ancestral twists and turns along the way, reveals a new genetic study on house kitties that included purebreds, mutts and even feral felines.

The study, one of the most extensive of its kind, used 39 genetic identity markers identified in 11,100 cats. Like branches on a person's family tree, these were used to determine the heritage of today's cats.

The DNA evidence adds to earlier archaeological findings and research that suggested the mother of all housecats was Middle Eastern.

"This work does support that significant genetic variation is found in cats from the Near East and Turkey, supporting the Fertile Crescent (as the housecats' site of origin)," co-author Leslie Lyons told Discovery News.

"We support that cats were likely domesticated from the Near East from wildcats," added Lyons, an associate professor of genetics in the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

For the study, Lyons and colleague Monika Lipinski collected cheek cell samples from the 11,100 cats, which represented 17 populations of randomly bred felines, or mutts, from Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa and the Americas, along with 22 recognized breeds.

The cell samples yielded genetic microsatellites, or junk DNA, which are highly variable and whose function remains unknown, but which can serve as genetic markers that link one cat's ancestry to another's.

The findings are reported in this month's Genomics journal.

Before the Middle Eastern convergence, all of the cats were found to be genetically clustered into four groups that correspond with the regions of Europe, the Mediterranean basin, east Africa and Asia.