Scientists Decode Mystery of Orange Cats

Scientists have unraveled why orange cats are orange—it turns out they're mutants, reports Scientific American. More specifically, they have a particular genetic mutation that has been identified for the first time. As the BBC explains, orange felines have a section of code missing within a gene known as ARHGAP36. The finding might help researchers better understand whether the cats are susceptible to particular health problems—or even whether the mutation might somehow play some role in behavior. Generally speaking, orange cats have the reputation of being "friendly agents of chaos," as a post at Phys.org puts it. Think Garfield.

Two teams of scientists, one in Japan and one out of Stanford, discovered the mutation, and their papers are published concurrently in Current Biology. "We think that there is no advantage—or really, disadvantage—to having an orange mutation in a cat," says geneticist Greg Barsh of Stanford. It's likely that when the first domestic orange cats surfaced centuries ago, they caught the eyes of humans, who encouraged their breeding, the researchers say. The ARHGAP36 gene is located on the X chromosome, which syncs with the fact that the vast majority of orange cats are male. (More discoveries stories.)