Cats’ Genome Should Be Used Much More for Scientific Research, Says a New Study

Cats are known to be pretty smart creatures. They can understand a lot of things, even though they often ignore their owners. Cats even have outstanding long- and short-term memories.

According to a new study posted in Trends in Genetics, veterinary medicine expert Leslie Lyons speaks about the scientific importance of the little felines that we all love. The scientist claims that cats have the potential to become a valuable model organism to be explored by geneticists. The reason is simple: the cats’ genome is similar to the one of humans.

Huge advantages for scientific research

Leslie Lyons from the University of Missouri’s Department of Veterinary Medicine & Surgery declared as quoted by SciTechDaily:

Using cats in research is really overlooked, since people don’t realize the advantages,

The dog or mouse genome have rearranged chromosomes that are quite different than humans, but the domestic cat has genes that are about the same size as humans, as well as a genome that, like humans, is very organized and conserved.

Lyons also believes that cats could act as an asset for helping scientists better understand the genetic “dark matter” of humans. The structure was considered filler information, having little consequences or none at all. However, scientists suspect that the dark matter from the genome might have an important and misunderstood role.

Leslie Lyons said, as also quoted by SciTechDaily:

As we discover that perhaps animals have more similar spacing between genes and the genes are in the same order, maybe that will help us to decipher what’s going on with humans.

There are a lot of amazing facts about cats. Although the cute felines are nearsighted, their peripheral and night vision is much better than the one humans have.