Scientists unravel mystery behind what gives orange cats their color

Meow we know!

Scientists discovered the reason behind orange cats’ coats in a new study crowdfunded by cat lovers around the world.

Two teams of scientists at Kyushu University in Japan and Stanford University in California determined that ginger cats’ color comes down to a missing segment of their genetic code, according to their study published last Thursday.

The lost link in a gene called ARHGAP36 makes it so that the cells in orange felines produce lighter colors for their skin, eyes, and fur tone. In ginger cats’ melanocytes, the cells responsible for color tones, the ARHGAP36 gene is much more active.

The ARHGAP36 gene is typically more suppressed in other types of cats, but operates unimpeded in ginger cats because of the missing code in the gene. So, scientists concluded that the gene, which provides instructions to the cells, forces the melanocytes to produce lighter tones.

The finding also falls in line with a gender disparity among orange kitties. Demonstratively, ginger cats are much more likely to be male than female. The teams found that this is in part because of the ARHGAP36 gene, which is only carried over on the X chromosome.

In male cats, which carry XY chromosomes, just one missing link is enough to guarantee that the feline will be ginger. Females, though, have two XX chromosomes, so for the lighter pigmentation to occur, both chromosomes would have to be missing the same part of the same gene.

So, female cats are more likely to have a mixed coloring, usually including orange with black patches.

Professor Hiroyuki Sasaki, one of the lead scientists in the study and a geneticist at Kyushu University, originally launched the project to help fight against inexplicable cat diseases and do his duty as a fervent feline lover.

Next, researchers hope to dive deep into the impact the ARHGAP36 gene may have on orange cats’ health condition and other bodily functions — including brain development. A common joke among ginger cat owners is that all the orange cats in the world share one brain cell — and get a turn using it.

In humans, the ARHGAP36 gene has been linked to issues like hair loss and even skin cancer.