Geneticists have finally found out the secret of red cats

Geneticists explained where the red shade of wool comes from.

After 60 years of searching, geneticists have finally identified the gene responsible for the red coloring of domestic cats.

Science writes about it.

Two independent groups of researchers found that any fiery shade of fur in four-legged cats is most likely the result of missing a segment of DNA in the non-protein part of the cat's genome.

“It was a genetic puzzle, a puzzle,” said Stanford University geneticist Greg Barsh.

Barsh and his colleagues found that the skin cells of cats that grow red fur express 13 times more RNA of a gene called Arhgap36 than the skin cells of cats without red fur.

Expecting that the protein encoding a region of the overproducing Arhgap36 gene had mutated, the researchers were surprised to find that the sequence preceding it contained a deletion that likely…