About the Authors

Barbara Gandolfi

gandolfib@missouri.edu

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri—Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, United States of America

Robert A. Grahn

Affiliation Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California Davis, Davis, California, 95616, United States of America

Nicholas A. Gustafson

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri—Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, United States of America

Daniela Proverbio

Affiliation Veterinary Transfusion Unit (REV), Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety (VESPA), University of Milan, 20133, Milan, Italy

Eva Spada

Affiliation Veterinary Transfusion Unit (REV), Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety (VESPA), University of Milan, 20133, Milan, Italy

Badri Adhikari

Affiliation Department of Computer Science, Informatics Institute, University of Missouri–Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, United States of America

Janling Cheng

Affiliation Department of Computer Science, Informatics Institute, University of Missouri–Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, United States of America

Gordon Andrews

Affiliation Department of Diagnostic Service/Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 66506, United States of America

Leslie A. Lyons

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri—Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, United States of America

Chris R. Helps

Affiliation Langford Veterinary Services, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS40 5DU, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

A patent is held by LAL and the University of California entitled “Test for determining the blood type in the cat,” Patent no. US 7,895,543 B2 that was awarded on July 26, 2011. The license to use the genetic test is available, as the patent is not exclusive. No royalties have been received by LAL from this patent. The University of California, Veterinary Genetics Laboratory has a license to run the genetic test for cat blood type B and has paid the license fee and yearly royalties. No patent is awarded or initiated for blood type AB. CH runs a service laboratory at Langford Veterinary Services, UK, which undertakes commercial genetic testing in cats (including genetic blood typing) as well as research. No non-USA license fee is required. RAG is an employee of the UC Davis, VGL. The UC Davis VGL provides research support to LAL, BG and RAG from genetic testing income. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: BG LAL. Performed the experiments: BG RAG NG GA CH. Analyzed the data: BG. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: BG DP ES LAL GA CH. Wrote the paper: BG CH. Conducted the 3D protein analysis: BA JC.