Hair Length in Cats

Katzen

Long hair, as e.g. in Persian cats, is a trait with monogenic autosomal recessive inheritance. We identified the causative gene for long hair in cats. It is the FGF5 gene encoding a member of the fibroblast growth factor family. There are several different genetic variants in the FGF5 gene, which lead to long hairs in different breeds and populations of cats (allelic heterogeneity).