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Scientists reveal how tabby cats get their distinctive stripes

Tabby or not tabby, that is the question.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read
tabby-cat

Tabby cats often have what looks like a letter "M" on their foreheads.

Auscape/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

As anyone with a cat can tell you, felines don't surrender their secrets easily. But a new study, published Tuesday in the science journal Nature Communications, delves into a long-held kitty mystery: How exactly does a tabby cat's genes make those striking stripe patterns in its fur? 

"Tabby" isn't a breed; it's a distinct fur pattern common among cats. Tabby cats often have what looks like a letter "M" on their foreheads, plus bold stripes of varying design in their fur. The tabbys have made their mark on pop culture, too. Morris the 9Lives cat food mascot is an orange tabby, as are cartoon cats Garfield and Heathcliff.

In the new study, conducted by scientists affiliated with Alabama's HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the Stanford University School of Medicine, 200 litters of nonviable embryos were examined, delving into the mystery of how patterns emerge in a developing cat.

"We think this is really the first glimpse into what the molecules (involved in pattern development) might be," Dr. Gregory S. Barsh, one of the report's authors, told The New York Times.

The study found that differences in the expression of the embryo's genes determined the colors they would later produce when growing hair follicles. Seemingly identical cat-skin cells can acquire different genetic signatures that later result in the cat's intricate fur patterns. The same could hold true for large wild cats, such as leopards and tigers.

The new research determined that a gene known as Dickkopf 4 (Dkk4) is vital to the process. Some cats, such as the elegant Abyssinian, carry what's called a ticked pattern, where instead of stripes, the cat may appear similar to a tabby in some areas, yet have smaller, fleck-like markings. The study shows that this comes when the Dkk4 gene is mutated in those cats.

It all may seem like more than you wanted to know about your favorite feline, but the study notes that "understanding the basis of the animal color pattern is a question of longstanding interest for developmental and evolutionary biology."