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Cr Cream Dilution

Name: Cr Cream Dilution
Brand: Equigerminal
Price: 43.05 EUR

Test that shows if your horse carries Cream, which makes coat colours lighter, golden or cream. Reads the SLC45A2 Cream...

€43.05 Mat TVA

About

This test shows whether your horse carries Cream, the dilution behind golden and cream coat colours, and whether it has one copy or two.

It is useful for horses of many breeds, including Warmbloods, and for anyone breeding for colour.

Why test?

Breeding for colour. The number of copies matters. Knowing whether each parent has one or two tells you which colours a mating can give.

Finding hidden carriers. Some horses carry Cream without it showing in the coat. The DNA test is the only way to spot them.

Telling pale horses apart. A pale, blue-eyed horse may have two Cream copies, one Cream and one Pearl, Champagne or a white pattern. They breed on very differently and cannot be told apart reliably by eye.

Registration and sale. Several registries record dilution status, and the result is objective information you can show a buyer.

Clinical signs

Cream lightens the coat. How it looks depends on the base colour and on the number of copies. With no copy, the base colour shows as it is.

One copy: red pigment lightened.

Chestnut becomes palomino: a golden body with a white or flaxen mane and tail
Bay becomes buckskin: a golden body with the black points kept
Black becomes smoky black, which usually looks like an ordinary black

Two copies: red and black pigment lightened. The coat goes pale cream, the skin is pink and the eyes are blue.

Chestnut becomes cremello
Bay becomes perlino: a cream body with slightly darker, rust-tinged points
Black becomes smoky cream

What fools the eye:

Smoky black read as black. This is the commonest mistake with this gene.
Palomino read as flaxen chestnut, and the other way round
Cremello or perlino read as white or albino. These horses have cream hair and still make a little pigment. True white horses owe their colour to other genes.
Buckskin read as bay dun, or the two present together
Grey, which slowly strips any of these colours away

Health. No disease is linked to Cream. Blue eyes and pink skin are part of the colour, not a defect, and need no treatment.

Transmission

Cream shows with one copy, and shows more with two. The gene is not on a sex chromosome, so colts and fillies are the same.

What each mating can produce:

N/N x N/N gives 100% N/N
N/N x N/Cr gives 50% N/N, 50% N/Cr
N/N x Cr/Cr gives 100% N/Cr
N/Cr x N/Cr gives 25% N/N, 50% N/Cr, 25% Cr/Cr
N/Cr x Cr/Cr gives 50% N/Cr, 50% Cr/Cr
Cr/Cr x Cr/Cr gives 100% Cr/Cr

Prevention

The result lets you plan which dilute colours a mating can give.

To guarantee a dilute foal. Use a parent with two copies.

To get a palomino. The foal needs one Cream copy on a chestnut base. Cremello put to chestnut gives only palominos.

To get a buckskin. The foal needs one Cream copy on a bay base. Cremello put to bay is the most efficient route, and the outcome then depends on the bay parent's own base colour genes.

To avoid a double dilute. Mate a Cream carrier only with a partner that tested negative.

Results

N/N: negative. No Cream copy. Cannot pass Cream on.

N/Cr: one copy, a single dilute. Passes Cream to about half of its foals.

Cr/Cr: two copies, a double dilute. Passes Cream to every foal.

Naming the exact colour needs the Extension and Agouti results as well, because the same Cream result gives a different colour on each base.

Sample

Hair roots: 20 to 40 hairs pulled (not cut) from the mane or tail, with the roots attached. Tape them inside the marked area of the printable sample 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.

Pale hair is not a problem. The pigment is in the hair shaft and the DNA is in the root, so a cremello gives DNA as good as a dark horse.

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.

Turnaround

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 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.

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

✨ Collect the sample: pull 20 to 40 hair roots with the bulb and stick them in the marked area of the form, or ask your veterinarian to collect blood in a K3-EDTA tube.

📮 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.

FAQs

What does this test not detect?
It reads Cream only. It does not read Pearl, Sunshine or Snowdrop, three other dilutions in the same gene. It does not test Champagne, Silver, Dun, Grey, Mushroom, any white pattern or the base colour. It says nothing about health, performance or temperament.

At what age can a horse be tested?
Any age. The genotype is fixed at conception and never changes. A foal coat is a poor guide to dilution, so testing early makes sense.

Should I also test for Pearl?
Yes, if the horse is pale and the Cream result does not explain it, or if it is of Iberian or stock-horse origin, where Pearl occurs and can imitate Cream. Where relevant, test Champagne too.

For Professionals

Genetic and clinical detail for veterinarians, geneticists and laboratories.

Gene / locus: SLC45A2 (solute carrier family 45 member 2; formerly MATP), Cream (C) locus, ECA21.
Variant: C^Cr allele, missense. HGVS (EquCab3.0): NC_009164.3:g.31690653G>A; XM_001498110.4:c.601G>A; XP_001498160.2:p.(Asp201Asn).
Alternative designations: published as exon 2 c.457G>A, p.Asp153Asn (Mariat et al., 2003). The genomic position is the same; c. and p. numbering differ because OMIA uses a more recent RefSeq transcript.
Variant identifiers: rs1140980396 (EVA); OMIA variant 153.
Variant classification: not currently evaluated (ISAG/AVCG, per OMIA).
Mechanism: SLC45A2 encodes a transporter the melanocyte needs to function; the Cream variant reduces the pigment deposited in the hair.
Inheritance: autosomal incomplete dominant (dosage effect): one copy dilutes phaeomelanin, two copies dilute phaeomelanin and eumelanin. OMIA code: A (autosomal).
Breeds with documented carriers or cases: OMIA variant record lists Quarter Horse, Morgan and Welsh Pony. Avila et al. (2022) found Cream in 25 of 28 breeds: Andalusian, Appaloosa, Arabian, Connemara Pony, Dutch Warmblood, Gypsy Cob, Gypsy Vanner, Icelandic Horse, Lusitano, Miniature Horse, Missouri Fox Trotter, Morgan Horse, Mustang, Norwegian Fjord Horse, Oldenburg, Paint Horse, Pony of the Americas, Pura Raza Espanola, Quarter Horse, Rocky Mountain Horse, Shetland Pony, Standardbred, Tennessee Walking Horse, Thoroughbred and Welsh Pony. Not detected in Hanoverian (n=31), Knabstrupper (n=71) or Percheron (n=37); absence in a sample does not prove absence in the breed.
Allele / carrier frequencies: allele frequency from 42% in the Lusitano (n=102) to 1.3% in the Standardbred (n=39), Iberian breeds among the highest (Avila et al., 2022; 11,281 horses tested, 6,878 after removing close relatives). The authors note ascertainment bias, as samples were submitted for colour testing, so figures for less-sampled breeds may be overestimated.
Clinical / diagnostic notes for veterinarians: SLC45A2 carries at least four equine dilution alleles: Cream, Pearl (Sevane et al., 2019), Sunshine (Holl et al., 2019) and Snowdrop (Bisbee et al., 2020).

Key references:

Mariat D, Taourit S, Guerin G (2003). A mutation in the MATP gene causes the cream coat colour in the horse. Genet Sel Evol 35:119-133. doi:10.1051/gse:2002039. PMID 12605854.
Locke MM, Ruth LS, Millon LV, Penedo MCT, Murray JD, Bowling AT (2001). The cream dilution gene, responsible for the palomino and buckskin coat colours, maps to horse chromosome 21. Anim Genet 32:340-343.
Holl HM, Pflug KM, Yates KM, Hoefs-Martin K, Shepard C, Cook DG, Lafayette C, Brooks SA (2019). A candidate gene approach identifies variants in SLC45A2 that explain dilute phenotypes, pearl and sunshine, in compound heterozygote horses. Anim Genet 50:271-274. doi:10.1111/age.12790. PMID 31006892.
Avila F, Hughes SS, Magdesian KG, Penedo MCT, Bellone RR (2022). Breed distribution and allele frequencies of base coat color, dilution, and white patterning variants across 28 horse breeds. Genes 13:1641.