Our stretch goal: Maine Coons. The sky’s the limit for awesome cat genetics!

May 20, 2015

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Our stretch goal: Maine Coons. The sky’s the limit for awesome cat genetics!As we posted yesterday, we have reached the full amount needed to sequence BUBs genome. Thanks again to everyone who made this happen! But the fundraiser is still not over! We have 5 more days to prove that we can do even more awesome science - with your help! Here's what we propose to do:
We've set our stretch goal to 30.000$ and the money that we raise will go towards Leslie Lyons' 99 Lives Cat genome sequencing initiative. More specifically, we would like to sequence another cat breed, with traits that resemble those of LilBUB. This will help us understand BUB's genome data better. At the same time we will get insight into the health and biology of this breed. And after a long discussion with Leslie this afternoon we have settled for Maine Coons. 
                
 
 
 A Maine Coon with polydactyly. [by Jorbasa, via flickr] 

Here's why:
1. Like LilBUB, Maine Coons frequently have polydactyly, so we could test if maybe the cause of the polydactyly is the same. Moreover, we've already found that BUB has the same mutation as the polydactylous Hemingway cats - and it has been speculated that Snowball, Ernest Hemingway's first polydactylous cat could have been (related to) a Maine Coon. So, by looking at Maine Coon data we hope to understand more about BUB's polydactyly – and possibly also her heritage.
2. In addition, about 30% of Maine Coons suffer from a disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The disease leads to thickening of the muscle walls, and can ultimately result in heart failure, although this is not necessarily always the case. Understanding hypertrophic cardiomyopathy better is important not only for cat health, but also for humans – after all, heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the Western world. There's a mutation in Maine Coons which is known to be associated with HCM. However, not all Maine Coons with this mutation develop HCM, and not at all Maine Coons with HCM have this mutation. So, by delving deeper into the genetics of Maine Coons we will learn more about HCM.
We intend to use about a quarter of the money for a crude, low-resolution genome analysis (a SNP chip, for the scientists out there) of about 50  Maine Coons with and without HCM. This will give us an idea where to start looking in the genome. Once that is done, we would like to fully sequence 3 cats and study the regions of interest in more detail.

We think these are pretty cool goals, combining our love for cats, genetics and human health. If you think so, too, please continue to donate! At this stage of funding, everything you donate we keep (or rather: spend on cat science :).

Melanie, Alicia, and 12 others like this.

1 comments

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Nancy VolleBacker

Can you clarify if the work on Maine Coons in any way encourages cat breeding? I am very uncomfortable with the idea of breeds of cats for a number of reasons - I'm guessing those concerns are things you are aware of. I suspect there are other people who have donated on behalf of Bub who share my concerns about breeding cats so for the sake of your project it might be a good idea to address this issue. Many people who care about Li'l Bub are strongly opposed to breeding of cats. By the way I did donate $150 a few days ago and I assure you it's not because I am "well off".

May 20, 20152

Uschi SymmonsResearcher

Hi Nancy, your comment is completely justified. Thank you very much. So, first of all: no, this aspect of the project does not at all encourage cat breeding. In fact, we selected Maine Coons specifically, because other options included breeds where the breeding has led to a traits that really reduce the quality of life (eg Munchkins). Also, Maine Coons are a well-established breed where a lot of research has already been done, so we're hoping that maybe we can even work with samples that have already been collected for other purposes. Another option would have been a breed that was only established in 2011, and displays dwarfism - but along the same lines as your reasoning we opted against it. Yet, in terms of getting the most out of genetic data, breeds can be very useful, because of the reduced genetic diversity (ironically, the same thing that causes all the problems). Hence why we opted for the Maine Coons - and of course because of the connection with BUB. I hope this answers your question and concerns. All the best, Uschi

May 20, 20152

Daniel M. IbrahimResearcher

Hi Nancy, I very much share your opinion and all cats I ever had were adopted from the previous owners, because they couldn't keep the cats anymore. Now that being said, we all know that cat breeding is a reality and we can't just stop this. And one of the bad things about breeding is the very fact of inbreeding. This leads to the accumulation of genetic variants that - in parallel to the animals having whatever desired feature - are often also ill. This very much happens with HCM in a variety of breeds and Maine Coons is only one of them. Non-bred "street cats" are usually much more healthy than inbred fancy races, because variety is good!! So why are we suggesting this stretch goal at all? We were asking us following question: Is there something that we - as GENETICISTS - could do that is links cats, health, BUB, and genetics? And our idea is that if we would try to identify mutations that cause HCM in a specific breed, then at least the breeders (that do exist) would be able to breed cats that are more healthy in the future. We don't want to provide knowledge to breed a special fur color, or face or anything. We want to provide knowledge to not breed cats with a heart disease! Finally, you can be sure that your donation will not support this. Our idea for the stretch goal is an independent project and the money we collected up to now only covers the costs of sequencing BUB. That is the current price tag on sequencing a genome and we will use it for nothing else. And I have to emphasize again how incredibly grateful we are for your donation and we can't thank you enough! We truly mean this and I hope that you see our best intentions of proposing the stretch goal that we did. If it's OK for you I would update the above lab note with some of my answers above. Best wishes - daniel

May 20, 20152

Nancy VolleBacker

Nancy Volle here. Thanks so much for the reply. I think your answer is very reasonable and I am very happy with it.

Jun 25, 20150

About This Project

The LilBubome - Sequencing LilBub's Magical Genome

The LilBub Genome Collective

LilBub is a magical critter: she's a lovely cat with an extraordinary appearance. Her special traits are caused by alterations in her DNA. We want to find the cause of LilBub's appearance: we will sequence LilBub's genome and look for variants that could explain her unique looks. We will closely document every step of the process, from crowdfunding to experiments and analysis, and explain what we're doing as we're doing it.