engleski

Quantitative genetic aspects of coat color in horses

The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for coat color in horses. Besides defining coat color classes (gray, chestnut, bay and black), the phenotypes were also measured quantitatively according to standardized international procedures (CIE L*a*b*), where L* describes lightness, a* describes color saturation from red to green, and b* describes color saturation from yellow to blue. The total color saturation was derived from a* and b* and referred to as Chroma. A total of 294 horses from the following breeds: Lipizzan, Nonius, Arabian Pure Bred, Shagya Arabian and Gidran were measured at neck, shoulder and belly. Heritabilities (within and between breeds or color classes) and repeatibilities were estimated using Restricted Maximum Likelihood (REML) from univariate animal models defined separately for gray and non-gray horses. For gray horses, the estimated within breed heritabilities for L* ranged from 0.45 to 0.49 and for a*, b* and Chroma from 0.09 to 0.52, indicating moderate polygenic effect. For non-gray horses, between color class heritabilities were high (0.70 to 0.85) and within color class heritabilies were negligible (except for L* measured on neck and belly, 0.21 and 0.34, respectively). Additionally, the importance of L* was described by the relation with the total melanin content of horse coat hair. For both, gray and non-gray horses, a strong negative linear relationship was detected (P < 0.01). The spectrometric measures and the results of this study demonstrate possible approach to the estimation of polygenic component involved in the coat color inheritance.

Coat color; Heritability; Horse; Melanin; Repeatability

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