Gene frequencies in the domestic cats (Felis catus) of urban and rural Bordeaux

Abstract

A survey was carried out of mutant allele frequencies at seven loci in the domestic cats of Bordeaux and rural areas between 50 and 140 km distant. The results support the suggestion of Pontier (1983) that urban rural dines are apparent at the orange locus, but not for non-agouti or blotched tabby. A 'triple centroid' curve smoothing technique was carried out on all the French populations surveyed so far. This is an attempt to reduce genetic and statistical noise and take account of standard errors of gene frequency estimates. The cline maps of Todd (1977), which included only ten French populations are thereby substantially supported by subsequently obtained data. There appears to be a striking affinity between the cats of Bordeaux and those of St. Pierre et Miquelon. This is the first demonstration of a connection between the cats of French Canada and those of mainland France. The origin of the cat populations of the main areas of French settlement in the St. Lawrence River valley remains unexplained.

Evidence of Selection on the Orange Allele in the Domestic Cat Felis catus: The Role of Social Structure

“…Our study based on a large sample of cat populations, suggests that a rural-urban effect exists for the Orange allele in France (Pontier 1983, Symonds andLloyd 1987). Orange allele frequency differences between rural and urban cat populations have also been found in other cat populations in Spain (Ruiz-Garcia 1990).…”

“…* P < 0.05. -1991-1992 tions than in urban ones (Dreux 1967, Pontier 1983, Symonds and Lloyd 1987, Ruiz-Garcia 1990.…”

Genetic microsturcture in two spanish cat populations. II. Gametic disequilibrium and spatial autocorrelation.

“…Hedrick (1985) proposed that the possible epistatic selection that could be noted in the populations of cats that he studied could be attributed to artificial selection via human preference more than to natural selection based on different genotypical fitness. Several authors, however, have asserted the possible action of some type of natural selection in favor of the dark phenotypes in urban areas (Metcalfe and Turner, 1971;Clark, 1975Clark, , 1976Blumenberg and Lloyd, 1980;Symmond and Lloyd, 1987). This would mean that the combinations of those pairs of alleles that confer greater darkness of fur would be favored by natural selection.…”