Breeders of top quality Plantation Walking & Mountain Saddle Horses. Specializing in buckskins and palominos. Standing naturally gaited, colorful stallions.
Horses for sale of all ages and training levels. Special section on equine color genetics. A Punnett square illustrating the possible coat color outcomes (black or bay) for the offspring of a bay mare (Ee) and a black stallion (EE) Horse color genetics involves many interacting genes.
Understanding inheritance, dominant and recessive genes, and Punnett squares helps us appreciate the diversity of equine coat colors. Equine Coat Color Testing Base Color Every horse has a base color, which can be black, bay, or red. This is controlled by the Extension (Red/Black Factor) and Agouti genes.
The Extension gene controls the production of black or red pigment throughout the coat. The allele for black color (E) is dominant over the red allele (e), so a horse only needs one copy of the black allele to appear black. Equine Coat Color Genetics Base Coat Color The basic coat colors of horses include chestnut, bay, and black.
These are controlled by the interaction between two genes: Melanocortin 1 Receptor (MC1R) and Agouti Signaling Protein (ASIP). EE or Ee / AAt - This horse is bay, because there is one "normal" agouti allele present. The next color modifer is grey, represented by "G" for grey and "g" for non.
Black (EE or Ee) is dominant to red (ee). Red (aka chestnut) is therefore recessive.That means that a horse carrying 2 black genes (EE) will be (homozygous) black; a horse carrying one black gene and one chestnut gene (Ee) will also be black (but heterozygous); and a horse carrying two chestnut genes (ee) will be chestnut (always homozygous). This means that if a horse has only red pigment (is "ee" at the red/black locus), the genes at the agouti locus have no effect on that horse's color.
If the horse DOES have an "E" gene, meaning it does have black pigment, the agouti genes affect it as follows. Whether you are looking to understand your horse's unique combination of color genes or are just curious to about the basics of equine coat colors, join us for this first installment of our "How to Read Your Horse's DNA Results" series. For less technical information on horse colors generally, see Equine coat color Equine coat color genetics determine a horse's coat color.
All horses begin genetically with a base coat of "red" (chestnut) or "black." [1] Then, additional alleles or "modifiers" act upon the base colors to create all other equine coat colors. This base color is designated as "e" for the recessive red allele and. The basics of horse color genetics and helpful links to better understand and determine what colors are possible when crossing horses.