PAX3 haploinsufficiency in Maine Coon cats with dominant blue eyes and hearing loss resembling the human Waardenburg syndrome.

ABSTRACT: This study investigated the dominant blue eyes (DBE) trait linked to hearing impairment and variable white spotting in Maine Coon cats. Fifty-eight animals descending from 2 different DBE lineages, the Dutch and the Topaz lines, were sampled. They comprised 48 cats from the Dutch bloodline, including 9 green-eyed and 31 blue-eyed cats, with some individuals exhibiting signs of deafness, and 8 stillborn kittens. Samples from the Topaz lineage included 10 blue-eyed animals. A brainstem auditory evoked response test revealed a reduced to absent response to auditory stimuli and absent physiological waveforms in all of the 8 examined DBE animals. We sequenced the genome of 2 affected cats from the Dutch line and searched for variants in 19 candidate genes for the human Waardenburg syndrome and

SUBMITTER: Rudd Garces G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11373664 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature