NEW YORK (AP) – Now we know how the tabby cat earns his stripes.
He just needs the right DNA.

Scientists say they’ve found the gene that determines which of the common tabby patterns a cat will have.

Cats with narrow stripes have a working copy of the gene.

If a mutation turns the gene off, the cat ends up with the blotchy
pattern.

The gene is one of several that work to create the distinctive design of a cat’s coat. It’s the first of the pattern genes to be identified.

The research appears online in the journal Science.