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Distribution of coat-color-associated alleles in the domestic horse population and Przewalski’s horse

  • Animal Genetics • Original Paper
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Abstract

Considering the hidden mode of inheritance of some coat-color-associated alleles, we investigated the presence/absence of coat-color-associated alleles in 1093 domestic horses of 55 breeds and 20 specimens of Przewalski’s horse. For coat-color genotyping, allele specific PCR, pyrosequencing and Li-Cor analyses were conducted on 12 coat-color-associated alleles of five genes. Our data provide deep insight into the distribution of coat-color-associated alleles within breeds. We found that the alleles for the basic colorations (bay, black, and chestnut) are widely distributed and occur in nearly all breeds. Alleles leading to dilutions or patterns are rare in domestic breeds and were not found in Przewalski’s horse. Higher frequencies of these alleles are only found in breeds that are selected for their expressed phenotypes (e.g., Kinsky horse, Lewitzer, Tinker). Nevertheless, our study produced strong evidence that molecular testing of the coat color is necessary for well-defined phenotyping to avoid unexpected colorations of offspring that can result in legal action.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Christiane Slawik (Würzburg, Germany), Tobias Knoll (Zenting, Germany), Sergey Knyasev (Novosibirsk, Russia), and Marina Politova (Moscow, Russia) for allocation of hair material and the many horse breeders who supported this study. This study was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (LU 852/7-4).

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Correspondence to Arne Ludwig.

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Communicated by: Maciej Szydlowski

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Reissmann, M., Musa, L., Zakizadeh, S. et al. Distribution of coat-color-associated alleles in the domestic horse population and Przewalski’s horse. J Appl Genetics 57, 519–525 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-016-0352-7

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