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BrindleTail — Genetics For Dummies
Published: 2013-03-07 04:59:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 23832; Favourites: 867; Downloads: 163
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Description
DISCLAIMER: If there is incorrect information, please comment to let me know so I can fix it. However, if there is missing information, it is most likely intentional as this is meant to be very very basic. If you are that invested in equine genetics, there are many other helpful guides and explanations on DA, as well as the internet as a whole. This is meant for those who are confused and/or need a quick reference for what genes create what colors.
About the Agouti Gene In Bays:
Agouti controls the restriction of true black pigment (eumelanin) in the coat. Horses with the normal agouti gene have the genotype A/A or A/a. Horses without a normal agouti gene have the genotype a/a, and if they are capable of producing black pigment, it is uniformly distributed throughout the coat. If they do not possess the dominant E gene, there is no black pigment in the horse to restrict, and therefore no black points will be seen in chestnut-based horses.
- a, the least dominant, must be homozygous to be observed and is responsible for unrestricted black coat (non-agouti black),
- At, only visible in the homozygous form or when paired with a, is responsible for the black-and-tan seal brown coat,
- A, visible when homozygous or when paired with a or At, is responsible for the standard bay coat,
- A+, dominant, is responsible for the wildtype wild bay coat
A+ is not mentioned above, but “Wild Bay” As it is called, is simply bay but restricts the black points on the legs to only reach the ankles. It is often paired with pangare, but is NOT responsible for any lightening of the coat. That is all Pangare.
Breeding basics:
If a horse is Homozygous, it means that it has two dominant alleles. EE is homozygous black. ChCh is homozygous champagne. CrCr is homozygous cream. Homozygous means that one copy will always pass to the horse’s offspring.
Example: ee aa CrCr = Cremello X ee aa = Chestnut
= ALWAYS has palomino foals: ee aa nCr
Example: Ee Aa ChCh = Amber champagne X Ee aa ChCh = Classic Champagne
= ALWAYS have ChCh foals. Possibly Amber Champange, Classic Champagne, or Gold Champagne.
This is because if you are choosing your foal’s genetics, you get to choose one of the two alleles for each gene. Ee you can choose E or e. For Aa you can choose A or a. But for homozygous genes you will have the same when you have ChCh.
Unfortunately there is much more information to be explained, such as wild bay, gene mutations like brindle and chimera, but again, this is meant to be as basic as possible. If you do have questions on genetics or help with possible foal colors, feel free to comment and ask here.
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Comments: 85
Some of your explanations are incorrect. Dun is in fact a dilution gene. It does not darken - it lightens. The 'markings' are remnant areas of undiluted color. And the whole thing about flaxen and silver is simply wrong. Flaxen only affects red pigment - that's why it doesn't show on black or bay. It has nothing at all to do with the fact that it's recessive or that chestnut is recessive. Zero. And in the same way, silver only affects black pigment, so it only affects horses showing black pigment. It's not "attached" to Extension as you describe. And badger face is not necessarily a sabino-only trait. It's seen in frame overos as well, and others with no Sabino1 alleles. For example: www.pinterest.com/pin/35402522…
This is otherwise a very good guide, so I would love to see it updated with accurate data.
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While I definitely agree (as well as multiple comments before yours) that dun is wrong and I made this guide before I fully understood dilute genes, I'm curious on where you get your information on flaxen from? While the gene hasn't FULLY been mapped, there IS substantial research that flaxen is in fact a recessive gene. Yes it only effects red pigment just like silver only effects black pigment, but unlike silver, flaxen is assumed recessive because a flaxen x non flaxen chestnut will result in non flaxen chestnut, whereas two flaxen horses will always produce flaxen foals. And while I agree attached is not the best word to use for silver to black pigment, thats what i meant. Also it does not say that sabino is exclusive to badger face markings, just that sabino can/does cause them.
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I meant it hasn't been fully demonstrated. The breeding results are indeed quite suggestive, but it's not known for certain yet. It's possible there are more than one allele at the same locus, for example, and they are recessive codominant, with only subtle visual differences between them. Probably not, most likely, but you never know. My issue was more with the implication that because chestnut is recessive, flaxen is too. There's no connection between them.
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Just a heads up, but sabino cannot cause blue eyes even when surrounding them - it is a very mixed up fact in the HARPG community that they can when they really can't.
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I'm not sure if someone has already commented this, but I thought I should let you know.
EE will result in a black horse.
Ee will also result in a black horse, not a bay.
ee will result in a chestnut horse.
In order to have a bay, you will need the Agouti gene.
I'm not really an expert or anything like that at all, bit that was just something I noticed. Otherwise everything looks good and accurate to me
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I'm not sure where It says Ee equals bay? Could you point out where?
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Oh sorry! I made a mistake and misread it
I'm sorry and embarrassed!
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ZebraW0lf referred me to this to learn more about equine genetics, and it's been very helpful 
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What is the genotype of classic cream, I'm confused.
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EE/aa/CHCH/CRCR is the geno <3
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Enlighten me since im new to this, what would these town be classed as as?
sta.sh/211rt56euuk9?edit=1
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NOOOOO!
Dun doesn't Darken the points it Lightens the base. That's why its a dilution gene, and that's also why Bay Dun is often mistaken for Buckskin, because they look the same except with stripes.
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if i breed my Black splash (Blue Eyes) EE aa nSpl with my Chestnut, Flaxen carrier ee aa nf what kind of foals would i get? and how much change would i have to get something with black?
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All your foals would be black because of the EE so because you're mare is ee aa all foals would be Ee aa. Some might have nf and some might have splash, and some might have both. Hope that helped!!
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Just a tiny nitpick. At cannot show up on bay base because bay (A and A+) is dominant over it. Any horse with A_ or A+_ will be bay and cannot be seal brown.
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There is further explanation in the artist’s comments section on the agouti gene, stating At may only be seen phenotypically if homozygous or paired with ‘a’. “Bay Based” on the sheet refers to the center column, meaning a horse that is neither black nor chestnut. Seal brown is also called seal bay and therefore I have put it within that column.
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Dont know if this isw already said, but chestnuts dont always have ee/aa. They can have ee/Aa of ee/AA too
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At the top it said ee/aa
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Very clear for the basics of equine genetics...good job! Couldn't have explained it better myself xD
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So would an ee ch be a gold?
Man I suck at anything like this... Really never understood Genetics!
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It would!! Gold Champagne is ee __ (doesnt matter what the agouti is, but you could say aa to keep it simple) nCh or ChCh
if one nCh your horse could throw babies that are not champagne
if ChCh your horse will always throw champagne babies
ee aa nCh
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ohhh I think I get it now!
So an Ee Aa CrCr would be a dominant perlino and pass the gene to the offspring?
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Just perlino! Or double cream. Nordanner has ruined the word dominant xD
But yes!! All the foals would have nCr from that parent.
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XD I don't really understand Genos and I probably never will get them as well as everyone else does, but this really helps and I think I can refer to this for a guide now!
Thanks!
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Most welcome!! Glad to help!!
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Also, what would be the Geno's for Overo, Tobaino & Splash?
And would you mind checking my Geno's for my latest adoption (not uploaded yet) when I put it into st.ash?
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Sure can!
The genes for Overo is nO or OO however OO is called lethal white syndrome and the foal will be stillborn
Tobiano is nT or TT though it has also been seen as nTb or TbTb
Splash is nSpl or SplSpl
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Thanks!
And this is the link: sta.sh/0234ib44d3rr
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No idea if you'll still change incorrect info. Paint is a breed and pinto is the group of white patterns. Duns always have leg barring, maybe really really faint on some to the point of being ridiculously hard to see, but it's there.
"Seal" isn't an addition to bay. It's a mutation of the bay (agouti) gene and is its own color. It doesn't only cause "seal brown", but also variations of brown (seal being the darkest shade) including what is called 'mock-bay' which can range from looking completely true bay with no mealing to changing colors and shades and intensity of mealing day-by-day. It is visible in homozygous (AtAt) OR heterozygous (Ata) forms.
My own horse is a mock-bay. Tested and true Ata (no generic bay 'A' gene, just brown 'At' and lack of agouti 'a'). He's my weirdo chameleon XD
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Thank you for your input! As you can see I have not labeled the sheet as “paint genes” but rather, “paint patterns” as to describe the type of white found on paint horses. I also classify “to the point of being ridiculously hard to see” as phenotypically absent or “sometimes.” As my family is a breeder of dun horses, I can count plenty of times where no barring was to be found. I understand it was most likely there, but as a digital reference for an art website, I aimed for more options for the artist.
As for seal, I had added it upon request, as many deviants have the most trouble with At of the agouti variants, and also you can see that no where have I said that it is an addition, and have further explained the agouti gene in the artists comments. I have also said it is “mostly” seen as dark seal bay, not only. So your following information regarding the mutation is /missing/ information that whoever reads this is more than welcome to take into consideration upon reading the comments.
I realize that if I was going to explain one, I should have explained them all and had a row of At and A+ however that would also have required a Burnt buckskin, burnt perlino, sable champagne, sable cream champagne, wild bay, wild buckskin, wild perlino, wild amber champagne, wild amber cream champagne, and my goal for this sheet was to keep it as concise as possible.
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After over a decade of consistent and ongoing research on genetics...jesus my brain overflows a lot. It's a miracle I retain all of the information I have.
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ohmylordie, i dont think i'll ever understand horse genetics 
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the flaxen chestnut there is a liver flaxen chestnut :] a regular flaxen chestnut would be a normal reddish chestnut with creamy mane and tails.
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Liver chestnut is not expressed as a gene and can be any horse that is ee. While liver can be expressed through the sooty gene, liver chestnuts may be flaxen, as well as black chestnuts.
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Cool! This is really helpful, but I still really dont get it
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I'm getting a foal looking like this:
geno: ee aa nCr nD nCh nZ nP nTb nSb LpLp nSty (patn1patn2)
sooty pangare gold cream champagne dun tobiano sabino semi leopard appaloosa
OR
geno: ee aa nCr nD nP nSb nO LpLp nSty
sooty pangare dunalino sabino overo snowflake appaloosa
but i have no idea how to draw that... and i can't seem to find a 'pangare' collor
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Well if you ever need help or want to trade nordanners for a easier color to recreate, let me know!
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what would the foal look like with hayleywolf.deviantart.com/art/… and lady-wild.deviantart.com/art/M…
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What would Amber cream Tabiano be?
What would Palomino roan be too?(im not good at genes)
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Amber cream tobiano would look something like
Ee Aa nCr nCh nTb
Palomino roan would be
ee aa nCr nR
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