The original Nature letter.
Reprinted by permission from Nature July 11, 1953, Vol. 172, p.82,
copyright 1953 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

A 'Rex' Mutant in the Cat

    In the house-mouse, five genes are known with much the same action on the fur: shortening the guard-hairs, curling the whiskers, and making the baby coat (sometimes the adult too) wavy¹. Three recessive genes in the rabbit, rex-1, rex-2, and rex-3, affect guard-hairs and whiskers as in the mouse mutants; the fur is not wavy, however, but is short and plush-like. There are also similar mutants in the rat².
     A similar 'rex' type of mutant has now turned up in the cat (see accompanying photograph). The fur of affected kittens is wavy; later it becomes very woolly to the touch, just like a young rex rabbit. The adult hair is curly but has the velvet texture of the rex rabbit; the whiskers are curled.

The original mutant (a male which also carries the sex-linked gene for yellow hair colour) has been mated to his tortoise-shell mother. Seven kittens have been produced so far, of which three have been rex. So the condition is inherited; but it is not yet possible to tell whether as a recessive or a dominant.
     It is hoped to publish further details later³.

A. C. Jude
3 Hill View Road, Mapperley,
Notts. May 23.

¹ Grünebarg, H., "The Genetics of the Mouse" (Martinus Nijhoff, 1952).
² Grüneberg, H., "Animal Genetics and Medicine" (Hamish Hamilton, 1947).
³ Searle, A.G. and Jude, A.C., "........" (Journal of Genetics, 1956).

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