Changes
From Biolecture.org
no edit summary
<p>Many people worry about the future of pure breed cats, about their lowered genetic variance and health problems. In this case, we can consider this issue from two perspectives, breed and species. These days 58 distinct breeds are established, and each of them is characterized by certain properties like size, color, behavior, longevity and so forth. Firstly, we discuss genetic variation among one breed members. Here we can see low genetic variance in comparison with random-bred cats. In study that I observed, scientists derived information from 1100 individuals, representing 17 random bred populations from different countries and 22 breeds, and they used heterozygosity and allelic richness for determining the genetic diversity. As a result, the average heterozygosity in pure breeds is 0.51 and allelic richness is 2.74, whereas, the average heterozygosity and allelic richness in random bred populations are 0.65 and 3.41, respectively. [<em>Table 1, </em>The ascent of cat breeds: Genetic evaluations of breeds and worldwide random-bred populations]. This data demonstrates that individuals inbreeding decreases genetic variance and consequently it can be negatively interpreted meaning that pure breed individuals have lower genetic flexibility and potential. These cats are prone to various genetic diseases and less adaptive to changes. So, inbreeding is negative from the point of view of pure breeds. However, according to the second perspective which is based on species, Felis catus, we can claim that inbreeding brings positive effects, too. Even though the genetic variation decreases among members of a single breed, the overall variation maintain. In my opinion, the genetic variation even increased due to human’s activities. In table 1, we can see that heterozygosity and allelic richness values of wild cats are higher than those of pure bred cats. This is quite expected result. However, these values are lower in wild cats than in random-bred domestic cats (in wild cats: Ho=0.53 and all. richness=3.36; in random-bred domestic cats: Ho=0.65 and all. richness=3.41) which means that random-bred domestic cats have higher genetic variation.</p>
<p>There is After all I have a hypothesis that explains the result results above. Random-bred domestic cats have no restrictions about their mating partners and no restrictions about geography. In common sense, people don’t appreciate random-bred cats because they are excessively many and don’t have any special features. That’s why, people don’t regulate their mating partners. Secondly, human beings are highly developed organisms who learned to move from one location to the other. This capability is advantageous for cats as well. They can move from one country to another, from one continent to another. In general, wild cats don’t have this opportunity.</p>
<p> </p>
