Previously on “Whats up with feline HCM research?
In the early 1990s when some of the first HCM cases in Maine Coon cats had been reported as a familial issue, Dr. Kittleson from UC Davis built a colony with affected MC cats to study the disease. In 1999, a published study[1] showed the colony’s HCM was due to an autosomal dominant trait with complete penetrance but variable expressivity (depending primarily on the sex of the cat[2]). Last October[3], Dr. Meurs, Dr. Kittleson and their team published an article that identified a genetic mutation that causes HCM in every affected cat in the colony’s family of cat. That mutation has been isolated by genetic sequencing. This is the genetic mutation the DNA-based test looks for. The identified gene codes for the cardiac myosin-binding protein C (MyBPC). The mutation was found in the very beginning of the MyBPC3 gene. Don’t worry, you’re going to get used to using these words soon! On 2005, December 21st, Dr Meurs has given a two-hour lecture broadcast through the Web, entitled “Inherited
