Biology Faculty Articles
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2012
Publication Title
PLoS ONE
ISSN
1932-6203
Volume
7
Issue/No.
12
First Page
1
Last Page
7
Abstract
The occurrence of melanism (darkening of the background coloration) is documented in 13 felid species, in some cases reaching high frequencies at the population level. Recent analyses have indicated that it arose multiple times in the Felidae, with three different species exhibiting unique mutations associated with this trait. The causative mutations in the remaining species have so far not been identified, precluding a broader assessment of the evolutionary dynamics of melanism in the Felidae. Among these, the leopard (Panthera pardus) is a particularly important target for research, given the iconic status of the ‘black panther’ and the extremely high frequency of melanism observed in some Asian populations. Another felid species from the same region, the Asian golden cat (Pardofelis temminckii), also exhibits frequent records of melanism in some areas. We have sequenced the coding region of the Agouti Signaling Protein (ASIP) gene in multiple leopard and Asian golden cat individuals, and identified distinct mutations strongly associated with melanism in each of them. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detected among the P. pardus individuals was caused by a nonsense mutation predicted to completely ablate ASIP function. A different SNP was identified in P. temminckii, causing a predicted amino acid change that should also induce loss of function. Our results reveal two additional cases of species-specific mutations implicated in melanism in the Felidae, and indicate that ASIP mutations may play an important role in naturally-occurring coloration polymorphism.
Additional Comments
National Cancer Institute contract #: HHSN26120080001E
NSUWorks Citation
Schneider, Alexsandra; Victor A. David; Warren E. Johnson; Stephen J. O'Brien; Gregory S. Barsh; Marilyn Menotti-Raymond; and Eduardo Eizirik. 2012. "How the Leopard Hides its Spots: ASIP Mutations and Melanism in Wild Cats." PLoS ONE 7, (12): 1-7. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_bio_facarticles/743
ORCID ID
0000-0001-7353-8301
ResearcherID
N-1726-2015
Comments
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.