Changes in a gene called Taqpep turn a mackerel tabby's thin stripes into swirled blotches. In cheetahs, the same change turns spots into the stripes of the rare "king cheetah".
Source: Kaelin et al., Specifying and Sustaining Pigmentation Patterns in Domestic and Wild Cats, Science (2012). doi.org/10.1126/science.1220893
Image: Olga Ernst, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
