Blood-protein polymorphism in the Japanese cats.

Abstract

Blood samples were collected from alley or feral populations of cats in four prefectures of Japan, and genetic variation at 31 blood-protein loci were examined by starch-gel electrophoreses. The proportion of polymorphic loci and the average heterozygosity were estimated as 0.2580-0.3548 (mean: 0.2903) and 0.0741-0.0917 (mean: 0.0793), respectively, Whereas these values are on a standard level of the genetic variability of domesticated animals, they are conspicuously higher compared with those of such wild mammals as Japanese macaque and Japanese serow. Amount of genetic differentiation among the prefectural populations was evaluated with the FST and GST statistics as 0.0075 and 0.0112, respectively. These values are more than one order lower than those among local subpopulations of the Japanese macaques, suggesting that the gene constitution of Japanese cats are fairly homogeneous over the country.