WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- The DNA of a 4-year-old domestic cat named Cinnamon has been sequenced by U.S. researchers in an effort to shed light on human diseases.

   Cinnamon, an Abyssinian cat whose lineage can be traced by back several generations to Sweden, lives in a cat colony maintained at the University of Missouri-Columbia. A report in the journal Genome Research details the first assembly, annotation and comparative analysis of the domestic cat genome, the journal said Thursday in a release.

   Researchers said domestic cats possess more than 250 naturally occurring hereditary disorders, many of which are similar to genetic pathologies in humans.

   The report said Cinnamon’s pedigree carries a genetic mutation that causes retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that can lead to blindness. The domestic cat also serves as a model for human infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

   The Cat Genome Project is based at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Md.
 

--