As anyone with a cat can tell you, felines don’t surrender their secrets easily.
The tabbys have made their mark on pop culture, too.
Morris the 9Lives cat food mascot is an orange tabby, as are cartoon cats Garfield and Heathcliff.
Seemingly identical cat-skin cells can acquire different genetic signatures that later result in the cat’s intricate fur patterns.
The same could hold true for large wild cats, such as leopards and tigers.
The new research determined that a gene known as Dickkopf 4 (Dkk4) is vital to the process.
The study shows that this comes when the Dkk4 gene is mutated in those cats.
