“Breed Differences of Heritable Behavior Traits in Cats”, 2019-05-28 (; backlinks; similar):
Cat domestication and selective breeding have resulted in tens of breeds with major morphological differences. These breeds may also show distinctive behavior differences; which, however, have been poorly studied. To improve the understanding of feline behavior, we examined whether behavioral differences exist among cat breeds and whether behavior is heritable.
For these aims, we used our extensive health and behavior questionnaire directed to cat owners and collected a survey data of 5726 cats. Firstly, for studying breed differences, we used logistic regression models with multiple environmental factors and discovered behavior differences in 19 breeds and breed groups in 10 different behavior traits.
Secondly, the studied cat breeds grouped into 4 clusters, with the Turkish Van and Angora cats alone forming one of them. These findings indicate that cat breeds have diverged not only morphologically but also behaviorally. Thirdly, we estimated heritability in 3 breeds and obtained moderate heritability estimates in 7 studied traits, varying 0.4–0.53, as well as phenotypic and genetic correlations for several trait pairs.
Our results show that it is possible to partition the observed variation in behavior traits into genetic and environmental components, and that substantial genetic variation exists within breed populations.