0 1 2 3 4 5 10 15 20 25 0 1.6875 3.375 6.75 12.5 25 50 100 Generation Crossed to Domestic % Bengalness Theoritical Asian Leopard Cats BxL LxD BxD Random Bengal Breed cats % Bengalness 0 25 50 75 100 ALC LxD BEN ACURL BOM BUR CREX EGY MANEE PERM MCOON MUNCH ORI PBALD RBLUE SREX SIR SPH VAN BxL BxD ABY BIR BSH CHR DREX JBOB KOR LYK MANX NFC PER RAG SFOLD SIA SOM TREX WIR Findings: 1) Department of Biological Science, Kuwait University, Kuwait 2) College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 3) Department of Population Health & Reproduction, University of California - Davis, Davis, CA Degree of Bengalness: A measure of the measure of genomic contribution of Asian Leopard Cats into Bengal breed cats Mona Abdi1, H. Alhaddad1, B. Gandolfi2 R. Grahn3, and L. A. Lyons2 Dataset & Analysis: The idea & Significance • The Bengal breed cats result from hybridizing domestic cats (DOM) and Asian Leopard Cats (ALC). • First generation hybrids can be further crossed to domestic cats and still be considered Bengal cats as long as phenotypic and behavioral characteristics retained (see cat below). • The ALC genomic contribution into registered Bengal cats is usually unknown and likely variable. • Significance of the study: 1. Develop a panel of diagnostic markers to measure ALC genomic contribution in Bengal cats (degree of Bengalness). 2. The panel can be used to study the genetics of the Asian Leopard cat and the ALC-DOM introgression zones in the wild. Dataset: • A total of 2161 cats (from 48 breeds/populations) genotyped using the 63K Feline SNP array were used. • ALC (N = 9) and domestic cats (N = 1765). • Calculate the allele frequency for each marker in each group independently. • Select the markers that are fixed with allele 1 (A1) in ALC and absent in domestic cats or have a minor allele frequency < 0.05. • Evaluate the positions of the selected markers. • Select a subset of the identified markers with near uniform inter-marker distances. Objective 1: Identify diagnostic markers that are fixed for different alleles in the two groups (ALC & DOM) 1. 674 markers were identified as diagnostic markers and they were distributed in all 19 cat chromosomes (Fig. 1a). 2. To avoid markers being in linkage disequilibrium, 287 were selected with an inter-marker distance ~ 5 Mb (Fig. 1b). Fig.1: Distribution of ALC specific markers along cat chromosomes. (a) Relative positions of all markers identified. Many markers are close to one another and may be in linkage disequilibrium. (b) Relative position of a subset of markers from (a) where markers are ~ 5Mb apart. SNP Relative Position (Mb) A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B3 B4 C1 C2 D1 D2 D3 D4 E1 E2 E3 F1 F2 X 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 a. SNP Relative Position (Mb) b. 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 Objective 2: Estimate the genomic contribution of ALC in: (1) known pedigree, (2) Bengal breed, (3) Other cat breed Dataset & Analysis: • Diagnostic panel (All: 287 markers, Auto: 262 markers). • ALC-DOM pedigree (N = 98), random Bengal cat (N = 98), and 33 cat breeds (N = 1452). • Calculate % of ALC alleles (% bengalness) in each individual using autosomal markers only. • Using known pedigree samples, estimate range of % bengalness and validate the estimates using pedigree information. Fig. 2: Genomic contribution of ALC. (a). Known pedigree crosses of ALC-DOM. LxD: first generation hybrid. BxL: backcross to ALC. BxD: backcross to DOM. BEN: Bengal cat unknown pedigree (b). Percent bengalness in known pedigree, random bengal cats, and other cat breeds. ALC DOM LxD BxL BxD BEN a. b. Findings: 1. Known ALC-DOM pedigree (Fig. 2a) provides information about theoretical % bengalness. In pedigree samples, theoretical and observed are similar (Fig. 2b, Table 1). 2. Random Bengal cats on average have ~ 7% benglness whereas other cat breeds, combined, exhibit ~ 1% with some variations (Table 1). 3. Proportion of ALC into Bengal cats is unmatched by any of the other breeds with the