Department of Population Health & Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2011 Jan;5(1):33-42. doi: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2010.01.013. Epub 2010 Feb 25.
The domestic cat is the one of the most popular pets throughout the world. A by-product of owning, interacting with, or being in a household with a cat is the transfer of shed fur to clothing or personal objects. As trace evidence, transferred cat fur is a relatively untapped resource for forensic scientists. Both phenotypic and genotypic characteristics can be obtained from cat fur, but databases for neither aspect exist. Because cats incessantly groom, cat fur may have nucleated cells, not only in the hair bulb, but also as epithelial cells on the hair shaft deposited during the grooming process, thereby generally providing material for DNA profiling. To effectively exploit cat hair as a resource, representative databases must be established. The current study evaluates 402 bp of the mtDNA control region (CR) from 1394 cats, including cats from 25 distinct worldwide populations and 26 breeds. Eighty-three percent of the cats are represented by 12 major mitotypes. An additional 8.0% are clearly derived from the major mitotypes. Unique sequences are found in 7.5% of the cats. The overall genetic diversity for this data set is 0.8813±0.0046 with a random match probability of 11.8%. This region of the cat mtDNA has discriminatory power suitable for forensic application worldwide.
家猫是全世界最受欢迎的宠物之一。养宠物、与宠物互动或与宠物生活在同一屋檐下的一个附带结果是，宠物的脱落毛发会转移到衣物或个人物品上。作为微量证据，转移的猫毛是法医科学家尚未充分利用的资源。猫毛可以获取表型和基因型特征，但这两方面都没有数据库。由于猫会不停地梳理毛发，因此不仅在毛囊中，而且在梳理过程中沉积在毛干上的上皮细胞中都可能有有核细胞，从而通常为 DNA 分析提供了材料。为了有效地利用猫毛作为资源，必须建立有代表性的数据库。本研究评估了来自 1394 只猫的 mtDNA 控制区（CR）的 402bp，包括来自 25 个不同世界种群和 26 个品种的猫。83%的猫由 12 种主要的线粒体类型代表。另外 8.0%的猫明显源自主要的线粒体类型。7.5%的猫具有独特的序列。该数据集的总体遗传多样性为 0.8813±0.0046，随机匹配概率为 11.8%。猫 mtDNA 的这一区域具有适合全球法医学应用的鉴别能力。
