--- license: permission_granted topic_id: companion_breed_health_sphynx_sphynx_hairless_atrichia_cat category: companion-breed-health title: "Sphynx — Sphynx hairless; Atrichia (hereditary; OMIA-verified breed predisposition)" lang: en source: "OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals, University of Sydney) breed-specific hereditary-disorder record, saved verbatim to source_file; C1 substring-verified. Pulled 2026-08-02 from local OMIA database dump." source_file: pdf-raw/breed-health/sphynx_sphynx_hairless_atrichia_3109.txt date_parsed: 2026-08-02 tokens_estimated: 269 verification: method: substring_match claims: 5 passed: 5 date: 2026-08-02 recovered: false path: companion-breed-health/companion_breed_health_sphynx_sphynx_hairless_atrichia_cat/01_companion_breed_health_sphynx_sphynx_hairless_atrichia_cat.md source_document: "OMIA — Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (University of Sydney)" citation: authority: "OMIA — Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (University of Sydney)" title: "Sphynx — Sphynx hairless; Atrichia (hereditary; OMIA-verified breed predisposition)" url: "https://omia.org/OMIA001583/9685/" retrieved: "2026-08-02" ref: "OMIA breed-specific hereditary-disorder records (omia.org), derived from local OMIA database dump; dataset: https://doi.org/10.25910/2AMR-PV70" doc_type: "academic animal-genetics database (breed-specific disorder entries)" needs_review: false
Sphynx — Sphynx hairless; Atrichia (hereditary; OMIA-verified breed predisposition)
Source: first-hand OMIA (University of Sydney) breed-specific hereditary-disorder record, saved verbatim to source_file; every claim below is a C1 byte-substring of it.
Claims
Breed: Sphynx (Cat)Disorder: Sphynx hairless; AtrichiaMode of inheritance: Autosomal recessiveClin feat: Sphynx cats have abnormal hair shafts, with deficits in both Henle’s and Huxley’s layer of the inner root sheath and the dermal papillae, accompanied by small, curved hair follicles (Genovese et al., 2014; Mota-Rojas et al., 2021). The resulting follicular dysplasia has been attributed to the mutated form of keratin 71, ultimately giving rise to the hairless appearance of Sphynx cats (Gandolfi et al., 2010; Genovese et al., 2014). This absence of hair impedes thermoregulation by reducing insulation, making Sphynx cats sensitive to temperature extremes (Mota-Rojas et al., 2021). Sphynx cats are also prone to greasiness of the skin and higher carriage of cutaneous Malassezia (yeast) than DSH cats, attributed to their almost-hairlessness (Åhman and Bergström, 2009). IT thanks DVM student Georgia Giles, who provided the basis of this contribution in May 2023.Defect: yes
Associated gene(s)
Derived from OMIA database dump (omia.xml, local); structured field, not verbatim prose. First-hand values below are verbatim substrings of the topic's pdf-raw/omia/<phene_id>.txt source file.
- Gene: Entrez Gene ID 5778227 (no symbol in OMIA GeneSynonym) — OMIA Phene_Gene
- OMIA molecular-genetics note: Gandolfi et al. (2010) showed that this hypotrichosis mutation (omia.variant:382; also known as Sphynx hairless) and the Devon rex Curly mutation (omia.variant:380 - see <a href="../../../../../../OMIA001581/9685/">OMIA:001581-9685</a> for details) are both due to mutations in the <em>KRT71 </em>gene which encodes keratin 71.
Evidence (references)
Derived from OMIA database dump (omia.xml, local); structured field, not verbatim prose. First-hand values below are verbatim substrings of the topic's pdf-raw/omia/<phene_id>.txt source file.
- 1973. The Canadian hairless or Sphinx cat. J Hered — PubMed:PMID4698915 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1984. Hairless cats in Great Britain. J Hered — PubMed:PMID6512243 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1934. Un chat nu. Rev. Zootech — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1933. La naissance et la disparation d'une mutation au sujet d'un couple de chats nus. Rev. Vet. J. Med. Vet. — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1937. A "cat-dog" from North Carolina: hairless gene or "maternal impression"?. Journal of Heredity — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 2010. The naked truth: Sphynx and Devon Rex cat breed mutations in KRT71. Mamm Genome — PubMed:PMID20953787 | DOI:10.1007/s00335-010-9290-6 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 2015. DNA mutations of the cat: The good, the bad and the ugly. J Feline Med Surg — PubMed:PMID25701860 | DOI:10.1177/1098612X15571878 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 2022. Genetic epidemiology of blood type, disease and trait variants, and genome-wide genetic diversity in over 11,000 domestic cats. PLoS Genet — PubMed:PMID35709088 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1009804 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 2014. Histological and dermatoscopic description of sphynx cat skin. Vet Dermatol — PubMed:PMID25109701 | DOI:10.1111/vde.12162 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 2009. Cutaneous carriage of Malassezia species in healthy and seborrhoeic Sphynx cats and a comparison to carriage in Devon Rex cats. J Feline Med Surg — PubMed:PMID19559635 | DOI:10.1016/j.jfms.2009.04.011 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 2021. Efficacy and function of feathers, hair, and glabrous skin in the thermoregulation strategies of domestic animals. Animals (Basel) — PubMed:PMID34944249 | DOI:10.3390/ani11123472 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
Comparative medicine (human OMIM)
Derived from OMIA database dump (omia.xml, local); structured field, not verbatim prose. First-hand values below are verbatim substrings of the topic's pdf-raw/omia/<phene_id>.txt source file.
- OMIM:615896 (type: trait) — OMIA Group_OMIM (via OMIA_ID)
- OMIM:608245 (type: gene) — OMIA Group_OMIM (via OMIA_ID)
verification_derived: method: derived_from_dataset source: "OMIA database dump (omia.xml, local); fields Gene/Variant/Article/OMIM" note: "Structured fields (gene, variant rsID/protein change, PubMed/DOI references, OMIM cross-link) extracted from OMIA dump and presented with first-hand values; not verbatim prose."