Geneticists have finally solved the mystery of Garfield’s orange coat

By Lluís Montoliu, Investigador científico del CSIC, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB - CSIC)

Garfield, star of the eponymous comic strip created by Jim Davis in 1978, is, like many of the cats that roam our homes, orange. He is orange in the same way that some people are redheaded, some horses are brown, or some dogs are Irish setters, but there is one important difference.

For all other animals, including redheaded humans, we know what causes this characteristic colour, but surprisingly, we didn’t know what causes it in cats – and felines in general – until now.

Two papers have just been published on bioRxiv – one of the most popular pre-publication repositories…

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