Coat Type

Long Hair (Discovered in many breeds)

Long Hair (Discovered in many breeds) Photo

The Long Hair (Discovered in many breeds) variant is one of four variants known to cause long hair in cats.

More Info

Did you know?

DNA analysis has shown there are at least four independent Long Hair variants in cats. The most common of which is found in most, if not all, longhaired breeds while the remaining three are predominantly observed in Ragdolls, Norwegian Forest Cats, and Maine Coons. Two longhair parents cannot produce a shorthaired kitten, with exception to a rare recessive shorthair gene observed in some family lines of Persian cats.

How it works

Two copies of any Long Hair variant must be inherited for a cat to have a long coat. This can either be two copies of a particular variant, such as this one, or two of any combination of Long Hair variants.

Health implications

Some long-coated cats require regular grooming to prevent mats from forming which can cause discomfort, and in severe cases, skin injury.

Prevalence

6 in 10 cats

have one or more copy of this genetic variant in our testing.

Technical Details

Gene FGF5
Variant T>G
Chromosome B1
Coordinate 142,165,952

All coordinates reference FelCat9.0

References & Credit

Credit to our scientific colleagues:

Drögemüller, C., Rüfenacht, S., Wichert, B., & Leeb, T. (2007). Mutations within the FGF5 gene are associated with hair length in cats. Animal Genetics, 38(3), 218–221. View the article

Kehler, J. S., David, V. A., Schäffer, A. A., Bajema, K., Eizirik, E., Ryugo, D. K., Hannah, S. S., O’Brien, S. J., & Menotti-Raymond, M. (2007). Four independent mutations in the feline Fibroblast Growth Factor 5 gene determine the long-haired phenotype in domestic cats. Journal of Heredity, 98(6), 555–566. View the article