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Coat Colour Profile, 8 genes

    Panel of 8 tests (Extension, Agouti, Cream, Pearl, Champagne, Silver, Dun and Grey) that shows your horse's coat colour genotype...

    1.407,00 kr Incl. VAT

      AboutAbout

      This panel reads eight coat colour genes from one sample: the two base coat colour genes, five dilutions and Grey. It shows your horse's coat colour and the coat colours it can pass on to its foals.

      These variants occur in horses of many breeds.

      Why test?Why test?

      Colour by eye is often wrong. Light, season, feeding and age all change how a coat looks, and several colours look alike. The genotype is the same in every light.

      Hidden carriers. A smoky black looks black but carries Cream. A Pearl carrier looks normal. A chestnut can hide its Agouti result and Silver. These horses produce surprise foals.

      Breeding. Knowing all eight genes lets you plan foal colour instead of guessing.

      Clinical signsClinical signs

      How the eight results build a coat colour:

      • Agouti and Extension give the base coat colour: bay (A/- E/-), black (a/a E/-) or chestnut (-/- e/e)
      • Cream gives palomino, buckskin or smoky black with one copy, and cremello, perlino or smoky cream with two
      • Pearl shows with two copies, or with one Pearl and one Cream, and then looks much like a double Cream dilution
      • Champagne gives gold, amber and classic champagne
      • Silver lightens black pigment, including the mane and tail, so it shows on bay and black base coats
      • Dun lightens the body and adds a dorsal stripe and leg bars. An nd1 horse can have a dorsal stripe without the lightening
      • Grey acts on top of everything: the horse is born with its coat colour and turns white with age

      Health. Silver also causes an eye disorder, Multiple Congenital Ocular Anomalies (MCOA): horses with two copies have the severe form and horses with one copy the milder form. Grey horses develop skin melanomas far more often than other horses. The other genes in this panel have no known link to disease. The panel does not diagnose disease; your veterinarian does.

      TransmissionTransmission

      A foal receives one allele of each gene from each parent, by chance. Cream and Pearl are two variants of the same gene (SLC45A2), so a horse can carry at most two of them in total. None of the eight genes is on a sex chromosome, so colts and fillies inherit them in the same way.

      How each gene shows:

      • Agouti: a black base coat (a/a E/-) needs two a copies and at least one E
      • Extension: a chestnut base coat (-/- e/e) needs two e copies
      • Cream: one copy shows, two copies show more
      • Pearl: needs two copies, or one Pearl with one Cream
      • Champagne, Silver, Dun and Grey: one copy is enough
      PreventionPrevention

      With all eight genes known, you can plan matings for the coat colours you want, and against the ones you do not.

      • To be sure of a coat colour, look for a parent with two copies: a cremello (Cr/Cr) passes on Cream to 100% of its foals, and a G/G horse passes on Grey to 100% of its foals
      • To avoid a surprise coat colour, check that neither parent is a hidden carrier
      • To avoid the severe Silver eye form, do not mate two Silver carriers
      • Have a horse that carries Silver examined by a veterinary eye specialist
      • For grey horses, ask your veterinarian to include skin checks for melanoma at routine visits

      Coat colour should not be the only criterion for choosing a mating partner.

      ResultsResults

      The Genetic Colour Certificate gives:

      • The genotype at each gene: Extension (E/E, E/e, e/e), Agouti (A/A, A/a, a/a), Cream (N/N, N/Cr, Cr/Cr), Pearl (N/N, N/Prl, Prl/Prl), Champagne (N/N, N/Ch, Ch/Ch), Silver (N/N, N/Z, Z/Z), Dun (D, nd1, nd2 in pairs) and Grey (N/N, G/N, G/G)
      • The coat colour that follows from them
      • A prediction of the coat colours the horse can pass to its foals

      Each gene is explained in detail on its own test page.

      SampleSample

      Hair roots: 20 to 40 hairs pulled (not cut) from the mane or tail, with the roots. Tape them inside the marked area of the printable submission form. Hairs without roots cannot be analysed.

      Blood: 5 mL of whole blood in a K3-EDTA tube, collected by a veterinarian. Label the tube with the horse's name and send it with the submission form.

      One sample covers all eight genes. Pale or white hair gives DNA as good as dark hair, as long as the roots are there.

      Keep samples dry and at room temperature, and do not freeze them. Do not send hair that is wet, mouldy or soiled with bedding or faeces.

      Send your sample by regular mail or express delivery to:

      Equigerminal Lab HIESE
      Rua da Quinta do Sobreiro Nº25
      3230-343 Penela, Portugal

      TurnaroundTurnaround

      Standard processing: results within 5 to 10 working days of the sample arriving at the laboratory. Shipping is arranged and paid for by the client, and transit time is not included in the 5 to 10 working days.

      Samples that fail DNA extraction or amplification are repeated at no extra cost, which may add a few working days. We contact you if a new sample is required.

      How it worksHow it works

      🛒 Buy the test: select and buy the test online.

      📧 Receive the instructions: after payment is confirmed, you receive the sample collection instructions by e-mail.

      ✨ Collect the sample: pull 20 to 40 hair roots with the bulb, or ask your veterinarian to collect blood in a K3-EDTA tube.

      📄 Complete the form: print and complete the submission form with the animal's identification.

      📮 Send it to the laboratory: Equigerminal, S.A., HIESE, Rua da Quinta do Sobreiro, 25, Quinta Vale do Espinhal, 3230-343 Penela, PORTUGAL.

      📄 Receive the report: the certified report is issued as soon as the analysis is validated.

      FAQsFAQs

      What does this panel not detect?
      White patterns (tobiano, frame overo, leopard complex, sabino, splashed white, dominant white), roan, Mushroom, the rarer Cream-gene dilutions Sunshine and Snowdrop, sooty and flaxen. Tobiano, frame overo, leopard complex and PATN1 have their own tests; the others need their own tests or have no test yet.

      Should I order the panel or single tests?
      The panel reads all eight genes and works out the colour from them together. If you only need one or two genes, the single tests cover them.

      At what age can a horse be tested?
      Any age. The result never changes, and foal coats are a poor guide to the adult colour, so testing early is worthwhile.

      For ProfessionalsFor Professionals

      Genetic and clinical detail for veterinarians, geneticists and laboratories.

      Loci genotyped (gene, variant, inheritance). Full HGVS, identifiers, classification, frequencies and references are on each individual test page.

      • Extension: MC1R (ECA3) · e, NM_001114534.1:c.248C>T, p.(Ser83Phe) · autosomal recessive (chestnut). e^a not read.
      • Agouti: ASIP (ECA22) · a, NM_001164017.1:c.187_197del (published c.191_201del) · autosomal recessive (black).
      • Cream: SLC45A2 (ECA21) · C^Cr, XM_001498110.4:c.601G>A, p.(Asp201Asn) (published c.457G>A, p.Asp153Asn) · autosomal incomplete dominant.
      • Pearl: SLC45A2 (ECA21) · C^prl, XM_001498110.4:c.1129G>A, p.(Ala377Thr) (published c.985G>A, p.Ala329Thr) · autosomal recessive; dilutes with one copy in combination with Cream.
      • Champagne: SLC36A1 (ECA14) · Ch, XM_023617382.1:c.188C>G, p.(Thr63Arg) · autosomal dominant.
      • Silver: PMEL (ECA6) · Z, NM_001163889.1:c.1849C>T, p.(Arg617Cys) (published R618C; also R625C) · autosomal dominant (coat); autosomal co-dominant for Multiple Congenital Ocular Anomalies.
      • Dun: TBX3 (ECA8) · D, nd1, nd2, regulatory structural variants (nd2 = reference EquCab3.0, about 1.6 kb deletion) · autosomal dominant, D > nd1 > nd2.
      • Grey: STX17 (ECA25) · 4.6 kb intronic copy-number variant, NC_009168.3:g.6625295_6629872dup (G2) / [3] (G3); G2 and G3 not distinguished · autosomal dominant.
      • Breeds: Extension and Agouti vary in every breed. Cream was found in 25 of 28 breeds tested (Avila et al., 2022). Pearl occurs mainly in Iberian and stock-horse breeds. Champagne occurs in breeds such as the Miniature Horse, Tennessee Walking Horse and Missouri Fox Trotter. Grey has been found in at least 62 breeds and populations.

      Key references:

      • Marklund L, Moller MJ, Sandberg K, Andersson L (1996). Mamm Genome 7:895-899. PMID 8995760.
      • Rieder S, Taourit S, Mariat D, Langlois B, Guerin G (2001). Mamm Genome 12:450-455. doi:10.1007/s003350020017. PMID 11353392.
      • Mariat D, Taourit S, Guerin G (2003). Genet Sel Evol 35:119-133. doi:10.1051/gse:2002039. PMID 12605854.
      • Sevane N, Sanz CR, Dunner S (2019). Anim Genet 50:275-278. doi:10.1111/age.12784. PMID 30968968.
      • Cook D, Brooks S, Bellone R, Bailey E (2008). PLoS Genet 4:e1000195. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000195. PMID 18802473.
      • Brunberg E, Andersson L, Cothran G, Sandberg K, Mikko S, Lindgren G (2006). BMC Genet 7:46. doi:10.1186/1471-2156-7-46. PMID 17029645.
      • Imsland F, McGowan K, Rubin CJ, et al. (2016). Nat Genet 48:152-158. doi:10.1038/ng.3475. PMID 26691985.
      • Rosengren Pielberg G, Golovko A, Sundstrom E, et al. (2008). Nat Genet 40:1004-1009. doi:10.1038/ng.185. PMID 18641652.

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