We regularly hear reported on the news that developments connected with human DNA has helped to understand where we are from and also to comprehend how our bodies work and the illnesses and disease we encounter.
Now this same level of complex understanding can be offered to our domestic cats following a new project led by a former UC Davis professor.
Dr Leslie Lyons is a cat owner and also part of a team at the University of Missouri who are working to sequence the genes of cats using a large pool of 99 subjects.
Their work is in line with other scientists who are currently working on similar projects on a range of animals from dogs to cows and other mammals and birds.
Genetic causes The genetics of the cat has thus far remained relatively under-explored.
But a full mapping of the 20,000 genes that the various breeds have could work towards understanding a whole range of genetically decided factors such as fur and eye color but also health problems that can be common to some breeds.
There is even a chance that it will shed further light on illnesses that affect both cats and humans.
This would mean that when a vet encountered a sick cat, they could look at its genetics and see either something expected to help them or the realization that this was something new.
It could potentially allow scientists to show which genes to focus on for curing health problems.
The research, conducted alongside San Mateo company Maverix Biomics, is currently at an early stage.
It is also uncertain whether owners and vets will be willing to spend the money needed to get a cat's genes sequences but it will mean that the option would be available to them.
and in the US along, $26 billion is spent on over the counter medicines, supplies and vet care for cats each year, according to the American Pet Production Association, so perhaps extra for gene sequencing won't be a step too far for some devoted owners.
99 Lives The project is called 99 Lives Cat Whole Genome Sequencing and grew from the original plan to sequence the genes of nine cats.
Lyon and her colleagues decided that this small sample wasn't sufficient to get a full genetic portrait of the domestic cat so increased the number of animals tested.
The samples are taken from cats that are spayed and neutered as the leftovers from these processes can be easily used to take DNA samples.
This means scientists are taking samples from as far as Greece, China, India, Russia, Madagascar and the Galapagos Islands.
They also want as diverse a breed list as possible including pedigree breeds such as the Maine Coon and the Egyptian Mau to crossbred housecats.
Racial groups So far, it has been shown that cats belong to different racial groups in much the same way that humans do.
For example, cats from the US Britain and Canada often tend to match up genetically because most of them share a Western European ancestry.
However, their profile is different from the cats of Egypt and also from those in South-east Asia and the Middle East.
So far, the project thinks there are 12 racial groups across the world.
Just as with humans, cat genes vary depending on where they live and what racial group they come from.
The first cat to be genetically sequenced was an Abyssinian called Cinnamon back in 2007 but at the time, the technology was only advanced enough to sequence around 60% of her DNA.
The technology used by Lyons project will map virtually all of the genes but each mapping will take weeks or even months and cost $8000 a time.
It also needs plenty of computer space - the total 99 cats sequencing will need 168 terabytes of room, considering a normal desktop computer normally has a capacity of 1 terabyte.
The plan is that the information will be store on a cloud-based website that will allow anyone to access it and search the information.