As in humans, the passage of time has an effect on the sperm of male cats. According to a US study, the cell division necessary for the production of gametes tends to cause mutations. Thus, errors and genetic aberrations are more numerous and can impact the offspring of felines.
If the biological clock very often tickles women, men are also concerned. The more time passes, the more the production of gametes is likely to contain errors . Indeed, cell division can "go wrong" more. In other words, the older a man gets, the more his sperm cells will have undergone renewal. This can then cause an accumulation of errors and genetic aberrations. However, these aberrations can have a more or less pronounced impact on the offspring of the individual. For example, some studies establish a correlation with certain neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.
Until now, the work that led to such conclusions had been carried out on primates. However, a study published on the bioRxiv platform on April 6, 2021 concerns male domestic cats. Researchers at Indiana University (USA) suggest that this phenomenon could be common to all mammals , or even to all animals producing spermatozoa.
According to this research, the mutation rate per generation in cats is slightly lower than that observed in humans. Despite this, considering a faster sexual maturation in these felines, it seems that the results remain consistent. Scientists have analyzed the genome of no less than eleven groups of cats (father, mother and kittens). On average, 70% of the mutations present in kittens come from the fathers. However, the older the latter, the more the young have mutations. The fact is that this proportion is similar in humans, where 80% of an individual's mutations originate from the father. And yet, neither parent had these mutations in their own genetic makeup. This is therefore a question of so-called "de novo" mutations (or neo-mutations).
Cellular processing is not continuous in eggs, with gametes stalling at the very last stage of cell division. Thus, very large-scale mutations synonymous with chromosomal abnormalities are much more likely to appear in semen. According to the researchers, Down syndrome (or trisomy 21) is the most famous of the pathologies that these mutations can cause. However, this study should be taken with a grain of salt as it has only been pre-published so far and is awaiting peer review.
