title: Selkirk Rex: morphological and genetic characterization of a new cat breed.
abstract: Rexoid, curly hair mutations have been selected to develop new domestic cat breeds. The Selkirk Rex is the most recently established curly-coated cat breed originating from a spontaneous mutation that was discovered in the United States in 1987. Unlike the earlier and well-established Cornish and Devon Rex breeds with curly-coat mutations, the Selkirk Rex mutation is suggested as autosomal dominant and has a different curl phenotype. This study provides a genetic analysis of the Selkirk Rex breed. An informal segregation analysis of genetically proven matings supported an autosomal, incomplete dominant expression of the curly trait in the Selkirk Rex. Homozygous curl cats can be distinguished from heterozygous cats by head and body type, as well as the presentation of the hair curl. Bayesian clustering of short tandem repeat (STR) genotypes from 31 cats that represent the future breeding stock supported the close relationship of the Selkirk Rex to the British Shorthair, Scottish Fold, Persian, and Exotic Shorthair, suggesting the Selkirk as part of the Persian breed family. The high heterozygosity of 0.630 and the low mean inbreeding coefficient of 0.057 suggest that Selkirk Rex has a diverse genetic foundation. A new locus for Selkirk autosomal dominant Rex, SADRE, is suggested for the curly trait.
authors: Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Department for Biomedical Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna Vienna, Austria.
authors: Serina
authors: S
authors: Filler
authors: Hasan
authors: H
authors: Alhaddad
authors: Barbara
authors: B
authors: Gandolfi
authors: Jennifer D
authors: JD
authors: Kurushima
authors: Alejandro
authors: A
authors: Cortes
authors: Christine
authors: C
authors: Veit
authors: Leslie A
authors: LA
authors: Lyons
authors: Gottfried
authors: G
authors: Brem
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001947:Breeding; D002415:Cats / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006197:Hair / Q000502:physiology*; D006579:Heterozygote; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D009154:Mutation; D010375:Pedigree; D010641:Phenotype; D058974:Phylogeography; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D014481:United States