HGG Community Forums

I couldn't find a thread like this in the old forum (but since I don't have a log in, I can't search, so it could definitely be there), but I thought it would be useful for me and anyone else starting out. I want to see if I've got all the genes sorted out:


Coat Color Gene Guide
Contributors include Salvistar, KerredansCorral, Abbey Road, and SandyCreek Farm

Base Coat Genes:
Extension: Possible combinations are EE, Ee, and ee. A horse that has one dominant (E) allele will be black based, while a horse that has two recessive alleles will be red based.

Agouti: Possible combinations are AA, Aa, and aa and each allele could be standard A (regular bay), A+ (wild bay) or At (brown-needs example). A horse that has one dominant (A) allele carries agouti. Agouti will only exhibit on black based horses, but red based horses can be carriers. A+ is dominant to all other forms, while A is dominant to At. AtAt will produce a lighter colored horse than Ata.

Cream/Pearl: Possible combinations are CC, CcrC, CcrCcr, CprlC, CprlCprl, and CcrCprl.
-Cream is incomplete dominant which means that a horse that carries one copy of the cream allele will be a single dilute (black->smokey black, chestnut->palomino, bay->buckskin (examples needed)) while a horse that has two copies will be a double dilute (black->smokey cream, chestnut->cremello, bay->perlino (examples needed)).
-(input needed on this one) Pearl exhibits only when a horse has two copies of the allele. Note that if a horse is CcrCprl, it will exhibit like a CcrCcr horse, but it still carries Cprl.

Dun: Possible combinations are DD, Dd, and dd. A horse that has one dominant (D) allele will be dun. Dun exhibits as lighter coloring with darker points on the face and legs. Some horses have a dorsal stripe and may have striping on the legs. Common combinations include chesnut->red dun, bay->bay dun, and black->grullo (examples needed).

Gray: Possible combinations are GG, Gg, and gg. A horse that has one dominant (G) allele will be gray. Gray horses are born as whatever base color they would have been without the presence of gray, but lighten over time. Sometimes a gray foal that has not grayed out can be identified by small sections of gray around the eyes and muzzle. (example needed)

Flaxen: Possible combinations are FF, Ff, and ff. Red based horses that are homozygous recessive (ff) will have flaxen manes and tails.

Sooty: Possible combinations are SstySsty, SstyS, and SS. Sooty controls how dark a horse is. It is incomplete dominant which means a horse with only one Ssty allele horse will be lighter than a SstySsty horse. There is also a limited edition version of sooty (S+) which creates a dappled effect.

Pangere: Possible combinations are PP, Pp, and pp. A horse that has one dominant (P) allele and is either red based or bay based will exhibit pangere. Pangere creates an area of light coloring around the muzzle, front legs, and loins on a horse.

Silver: Possible combinations are ZZ, Zz, and zz. A horse with one dominante (Z) allele that is black based will exhibit silver. Silver turns the black points on a horse into a silver color. (example needed)

Champagne: Possible combinations include ChCh, Chch, and chch. A horse with one dominant (Ch) allele will exhibit champagne. Champagne gives the horse a "pinkish" hue (better way to describe this appreciated). Champagne horses have pink, often speckled muzzles. With the champagne gene, black->classic champagne, bay->amber champagne, and chestnut->gold champagne (example needed).

Satin: Section needed

Dense Phelomelanin (DP): This gene cannot currently be tested for. DP only exhibits on red based horses, and can be hard to detect without a Ssty allele present as well. (I think it would be cool if we just collected a bunch of examples of this and I posted them here. I'l start with one of mine that I think has DP: example


Pattern Genes:

Kit: The Kit gene controls roan (Kitr), tobiano (Kitto), white (Kitw, Kitw2, Kitw3, Kitw4) and sabino (Kitsb1, Kitsb2, Kitsb3). Each horse only has two kit alleles, so any given horse can only have a maximum of two of these patterns. Note that a horse can only pass on one of its kit alleles, so if you have a roan tobiano horse, he can only pass on either roan or tobiano, but not both.

Roan: The roan allele exhibits as an even mixture of white and colored hairs over most of the body, excluding the head and legs.

Tobiano: The tobiano allele exhibits as white patches that cross over the top of a horse. Tobiano horses will occasionally have white tails.

White: The white alleles creates irregular, white patches on a horse. There are four white alleles: (examples). Any horse that inherits two of any white allele will be stillborn! Breeding two white horses won't increase the chance of having a live, white foal; it will only yield a 25% chance of a dead foal. Note that white 1 or 2 combined with sabino 1 or 2 will yield a dead foal as well. (visual differences between W1, W2, W3, and W4?, examples of white horses needed)

Sabino: The sabino alleles typically create white markings on a horse's face, legs and on the underside of his body. Sabino 1 has a smudgy look, while sabino 2 has much more jagged edges. Sabino 3 is more patchy and tends to cover more of a horse's body. Note that white 1 or 2 combined with sabino 1 or 2 will yield a dead foal.

Splash: Splash generally exhibits on the lower parts of a horse's body (think paint splashed up on the horse). There are three splash alleles: Sps, Sps2, Sps3.

Varnish:

Appaloosa:

Rabicano:

Frame; (OwlO exhibits frame), fatal if homozygous

Ice: I know nothing about this one. Aren't there a ton of variations on this too? Is this reverse dapples in RL?

White Factor:

Pattern Expression:

Kit Promoter:

Gulastra Plume:

Please correct me where I'm wrong or let me know what I should add to make this more complete. I'll edit it so we have something like an approximate record of what does what.