How the Cat Gets Its Stripes: It’s Genetics, Not a Folk Tale

Researchers took a deep dive into embryonic development to tease out the source of the tabby pattern in cats.

Folklore is full of stories about the coat patterns of cats: How the tiger got its stripes. How the leopard got its spots. And scientists ask the same questions, although not necessarily about large predators. The research may focus instead on something like the mackerel tabby pattern in domestic shorthairs. The question of how cat stripes and splotches are made touches on some of the deepest theoretical puzzles of biology. How does a blob of cells organize itself into a fruit fly, or a panda? What tells the bones in a limb to become a hand, or paw, or the ribbing of a leathery wing? What tells some skin cells to grow dark hair and others lighter hair? A team of geneticists reported Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications that it had identified a gene in domestic cats that plays a key role in creating the traditional tabby stripe pattern, and that the pattern is evident in embryonic tissue even before hair follicles start to grow.