published on Thursday.<\/a><\/p>\nWhat the teams found was that in the cells responsible for giving a cat its skin, hair follicles and eyes their colour – melanocytes – one gene, ARHGAP36, was much more active.<\/p>\n
Genes are made up of pieces of DNA which give instructions to a cat’s cells, like other living creatures, on how to function.<\/p>\n
By comparing the DNA from dozens of cats with and without orange fur they found that those with ginger colouring had a section of DNA code missing within this ARHGAP36 gene.<\/p>\n
Without this DNA the activity of the ARHGAP36 is not suppressed i.e. it is more active. The scientists believe that the gene instructs those melanocytes to produce lighter pigment. <\/p>\n
Ginger cats mostly male<\/p>\n
For decades scientists have observed that cats with completely ginger colouring are far more likely to be male. This tallies with the fact that the gene is carried on the X chromosome. <\/p>\n
Chromosomes are larger sections of DNA, and male cats like other mammals have an X and a Y chromosome, which carry different number of genes. <\/p>\n
As it is a gene only on the X chromosome, in this case controlling the pigment production, then one missing piece of DNA is enough to turn a cat fully ginger.<\/p>\n
In comparison female cats have two X chromosomes so the DNA needs to be missing in both chromosomes to increase lighter pigment production to the same extent – it means a mixed colouring is more likely.<\/p>\n
“These ginger and black patches form because, early in development, one X chromosome in each cell is randomly switched off,” explains Prof Hiroyuki Sasaki, geneticist at Kyushu University. <\/p>\n
“As cells divide, this creates areas with different active coat colour genes, resulting in distinct patches.”<\/p>\n
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Getty Images<\/p>\n
Calico and tortoiseshell cats with mixed colourings are more likely to be female<\/p>\n
Although couched in science, the study originally started off as a passion project for Professor Sasaki.<\/p>\n
He had retired from his university post, but as a cat lover said he wanted to continue working to uncover the orange cat gene in the hope it could “contribute to the overcoming of cat diseases”.<\/p>\n
He and his team raised 10.6m yen (\u00a355,109) via crowdfunding for the research from thousands of fellow cat lovers across Japan and the world.<\/p>\n
One contributor wrote: “We are siblings in the first and third grades of elementary school. We donated with our pocket money. Use it for research on calico cats.”<\/p>\n
![\"Hiroyuki](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ac320f40-3172-11f0-8fe4-175a817b5a2f.jpg.webp.webp\")
Hiroyuki Sasaki\/Kyushu University<\/p>\n
Professor Sasaki compared the genes of calico cats to those without, using local cats and an international genome database<\/p>\n
The ARHGAP36 gene is also active in many other areas of the body including the brain and hormonal glands, and is considered important for development. <\/p>\n
The researchers think it is possible that the DNA mutation in the gene could cause other changes in these parts of the body linked to health conditions or temperament.<\/p>\n
The ARHGAP36 gene is found in humans and has been linked to skin cancer and hair loss.<\/p>\n
“Many cat owners swear by the idea that different coat colours and patterns are linked with different personalities,” said Prof Sasaki. <\/p>\n
“There’s no scientific evidence for this yet, but it’s an intriguing idea and one I’d love to explore further.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Esme Stallard Climate and science correspondent Getty Images Garfield, Puss in Boots, Aristocats’ Toulouse \u2013 cultural icons maybe,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[267,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-108637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114522405812260771","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Getty Images<\/p>\n