Coding Sequence Variants in 15 Non-Domestic Felid Species Related to Blood Group System.

Different blood group systems have been characterized in people and other mammals. In domestic cats, the blood group system plays the most important clinical role and has been investigated extensively-from the phenotype to the molecular genetics. In non-domestic felids, phenotypic blood typing has been performed by different methods to detect the antigens, but the four informative markers in domestic cats were not able to identify types and () in non-domestic cats. In this study, 138 blood samples from 15 non-domestic (wild) felid species were investigated by exonic sequencing and genotyping for putative variants causing type or () and correlation to the respective blood phenotype. A total of 58 variants were found, including 15 missense and 43 synonymous variants. One variant (c.635G>C) was concordant with blood type (and ) in cheetahs and type in cougars, compared to blood type in all other felid species (lion, tiger, Canada lynx, snow leopard, clouded leopard, serval, jaguar, fishing cat, Pallas cat, bobcat, black footed cat, leopard, and sand cat). Since cheetahs and cougars belong to the genera puma, it could not be determined if the common variant is either a marker for type (or ) or is just common in pumas.