The DNA of a four year old Abyssinian cat called Cinnamon has been sequenced! The cat is being analyzed using "light" (two-fold) genome sequence coverage. To understand Cinnamon's data sequence, a group of scientists used information from other sequenced mammals. By doing this, they found out that the cat, Cinnamon, had sequences that spanned about 65% of the euchromatic (gene-containing) regions of the feline genome. Similarities wit the cat genome and the human, chimpanzee, mouse, rat, dog, and cow genomes helped scientists find 20,285 putative genes int he cat genome revealing hundreds of chromosomal rearrangements from different lineages of mammals since the diversion from the dinosaurs. (100 million years ago)
This phenomenon of gene sequence analysis will benefit the health of the 90 million domestic cats that live in America. This will also benefit human health because a domestic cat serves as an excellent model for human diseases. Therefore the National Human Genome Research Institute initially authorized the genome sequencing project. Currently, domestic cats have over 250 naturally occurring hereditary disorders which are similar to the those of humans. An example would be that Cinnamon's pedigree has a genetic mutation that causes a degenerative eye that leads to being blind. This same genetic mutation affects 1 in 3,500 Americans, therefore the cat would be a superb example, this would also be an excellent example for other diseases, including HIV/AIDS (From FIV).
The Cat Genome Project is in the National Cancer Institute. Cinnamon lives in a cat colony at the University of Missouri, Columbia. And the sequencing data was generated by the Agencourt Bioscience Corporation in Beverly, Massachusetts.
