The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: November 4, 2007

Official News page 9


REAL LIFE NEWS: THE GENETIC CODE OF THE CAT

by Hazed

Dogs, chimps, rats, mice, cows and people have now been joined by cats. That's all the mammals who have had their genome sequenced. To be specific, the new addition is a pedigree cat called Cinnamon.

Cats get hundreds of illnesses similar to human ones, including a feline version of HIV, feline leukaemia, and a hereditary form of blindness - so the new genome map of the cat is expected to help shed light on human diseases as well as feline ones.

Analysis of the cat genome sequence could also shed light on everything from evolution to the origins of feline domestication. Like other mammals, the cat has around 20,000 genes, and by comparing them to those of other mammals, researchers can study differences in biology and evolution, and even behaviour.

I wonder if they will be able to explain just why cats are so contrary...


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