MUTANT ALLELE FREQUENCIES IN DOMESTIC CAT POPULATIONS ON THE SPANISH MEDITERRANEAN COAST, AND THEIR GENETIC DISTANCES FROM OTHER EUROPEAN AND NORTH AFRICAN CAT POPULATIONS

New genetic profiles of domestic cat populations were studied in different parts of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The t(b) frequency is the most outstanding differentiated factor between the populations analyzed. The low t(b) frequencies found in Barcelona and other Catalan localities are the most important characteristic of these populations and, probably, find an explanation in the extraordinarily high historical and commercial relationships between Barcelona and the Eastern Mediterranean (Greece, especially) during the 14th and 15th centuries. In other Spanish Mediterranean littoral cities the t(b) frequencies reach higher values and are more similar to those found in other Western European cat populations. Significant differences found in certain allelic frequencies (Orange and Blotched) caused by the urban-rural effect are discovered between Barcelona and two nearby rural cat populations.