DefinePK

Abstract

Anatolia is considered the cradle of domestication for many animal species, including cats. Unlike agricultural (cattle, sheep, pig) or carrying animals (horse, donkey), cats are commensal-domesticated due to their feeding habits on rodents, which invade farm grain storage. Earliest archaeological evidence of the domestication of cats was found in Cyprus, from a period of 9,500–4,000 years ago. Despite the fact that cats are an important species, there is a lack of molecular evidence to elucidate the history of the Angora and Van cats. To shed light on domestic cat breeds of Anatolia, we investigated the Cytochrome b gene (Cytb) and control regions (CR or D loop) on mtDNA by PCR and Sanger sequencing of Angora (n=29), Van (n=50) and stray cats (n=51). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Felis silvestris lybica was major maternal origin whereas Van, Angora and stray cats also shared branch with Felis silvestris ornata. Network analysis and frequency calculations showed ~70% of the cats were represented by two major haplotypes, A and D for CR; Haplotype 10 and Haplotype 15 for CYTb. Unique sequences were found in 9.3% of the population (Van n=1; Angora n=3; stray cats n=8). Haplotype diversity of Cytb and CR region were determined to be 0.71 and 0.77, respectively. Shared haplotypes were high, thus FST statistics revealed low genetic differentiation between groups.