I spent several hours the other day trying to work out horse genetics and came up with a few questions I could not find the answer to or could not find the answer to in a way I could understand so I am looking for some genetics wizards to help me!
Some of you may know that I am trying to breed Palominos and my first question is about Palominos,
The Agouti gene - I believe that it is not visable in Palominos as they have a red base. However it looks like they can carry Agouti genes, is that right? If so what colour would be best to breed a palomino to to discover if they carry this gene?
Second is about markings. I have a foal who was the result of a appy x tobiano breed. Is it therefore possible for him to carry tobiano? Is it possible that a visable appy may carry the overo gene or can a horse only show 1 form of white marking.
Also I had my first attempt at working out the genetics on one of my horses how close was I to getting it right?
(http://stable.colbyforkicks.com/gallery/d/131-1/118.png)
?? ee Cc rr dd gg ww L? Nn tt oo ?? ?? ??
She has had one foal: Whos father was Silvanons Copper (Chestnut Tobiano)
(http://stable.colbyforkicks.com/gallery/d/2593-1/344.png)
I am guessing i need to test breed her a couple of more times to confirm she is homozygous Appaloosa
Rav will have to answer the one about the specific genes, as she is the only one who knows those for sure :D
But for the palomino and agouti, I think the best choice to breed her to to find out would be a black stud. Then he wouldn't have an agouti gene, and if the foal was bay or buckskin, you would know she does carry agouti
As for tobiano, I believe it is a dominant gene, so if the foal had gotten tobiano, it would show. Horses can definitely show more than one type of white marking; there are several pintaloosas running around The Stable already.
Not sure on the overo part - Independence doesn't look like she is showing it, unless she has sabino (she looks like she might), Copper doesn't look like he has any, and Eagle doesn't either, so I would say overo is unlikely. But again, Ravvana would be able to confirm or deny XD
Thanks Lectral thats a help for the agouti gene query - I'm not sure if I worded the question on my guess at her genetics correctly. I'm sure Rav will never let it slip exactly what each horse carries but I had a best guess at them. Is there anything visably missed either in the mare herself or her foal?
Im not even sure what sabino is! I guess I will need to go and read up on that now as well *chuckles*
sabino is the high whites on the legs and usually significant face white (though, sometimes only a chin spot), often with a little white on the belly - a really good example is the budweiser clydesdales, if you do an image search for them
I don't see anything missed in the genes, but I also don't know the actually gene code very well - I know how they work, just don't pay a ton of attention to the code strings XD