Gray color genetic question..?

So, the little girl who keeps asking if her grey horse is grey made a question pop into my head. I know very, very little about color genetics, but I do know that in order to produce a grey horse, at least one parent must be gray.... but if you have a grey parent, then how come you are not going to get a grey foal 100% of the time?



I have a grey mare whose dam was grey and sire was chestnut. My mare was bred twice to a bay stallion, and both foals ended up dark bay. How does that work exactlly? Shouldn't the foals have been grey for certain because a parent was grey??



Also, not that I want to breed, nor have any intentions on breeding, but in theory, if I bred my gray mare (with the chestnut sire and grey dam) to a buckskin stallion, that has one b-skin parent %26amp; a chestnut parent, what would the foal's adult color be do you color-gurus think ?

Gray color genetic question..?
Well, without trying to give you the specifics in color genetics (which is a lot of info to retain in every situation, even if you study it a lot) But I will tell you this, you have base colors, modifiers, dilutions.. Both a grey and a bay are modifiers and you have a 50/50 chance unless the grey parent is homozygous, then it would be 100% grey for the foal color.



The potential foal you are speaking of, you are adding base color/modifiers and a dilution. So, here is what I've found for you





75.00% - Gray

7.29% - Buckskin

7.29% - Bay

4.17% - Palomino

4.17% - Chestnut

1.04% - Smoky Black

1.04% - Black

(percentages provided by:http://www.animalgenetics.us) based on grey dam with chestnut sire bred to a buckskin stallion)
Reply:Gray coloration occurs over time. Foals are not born gray - they have some indicators that show that they will become gray, though. Gray "goggles" around the eyes is one indicator.

Your mare is heterozygous for gray.That is, she got her one dominant gray gene from her mama. She is Gg.

If bred to a GG (homozygous Gray, both genes) horse, all the babies would turn gray. (50% GG, 50%Gg)

If bred to a Gg horse (Gray, like herself - carrying one dominant G gene) 75% of the babies would be gray.(25% (GG) homozygous, 50% (Gg) heterozygous)

25% would not be gray- and they would not carry the gray gene at all (gg).

If her sire is not gray, he does not carry the dominant gray gene. He is gg.

If she were bred to a non-gray gg horse, 50% of the babies would not be grays.

(Dominant genes are expressed as capitals, recessive genes are small case. In a mix of dominant and recessive genes (Gg) the dominant gene wins out.)



Her foals may yet turn gray.



Here's a good site about color genetics. If you want to have a horse tested to see what kinds of color genes they have, they'll do what is currently possible - it'll cost you per test you want done. But that is better than waiting for the foals to prove parental genetics if you want a particular color!



http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/~lvmillon/coa...
Reply:Genes come in pairs...one from both parents. So, if the parent was homozygous (got the gene from both its parents and thus had two to pass on) for a dominant trait...one that expresses every time it is passed to offspring...then that parent would produce that color in its offspring...



Of course, like in your example, it could be affected by modifiers from the other parent. A homozygous black stallion bred to a dilute mare (palomino, buckskin) would have to produce a black foal...but it could be dilute black (smokey) if the mare passed her dilute.



Your mare's dam only had one grey parent, so she could not have inherited grey from both sides. Therefore, if she doesn't throw her G gene, the foal will not be grey.



Foal inherits agouti gene from stallion but not dilute: bay

Foal inherits agouti and dilute: buckskin

Foal inherits only dilute: (assuming at least one grandparent is black) smokey black or palomino

Foal inherits neither dilute nor agouti: red or black



Now on top of all that...



Foal inherits mare's Grey gene: Grey foal (could be born any number of the above colors, but will grey out)



That really is over simplifying without going into the whole red/black thing, and recessive traits... but I hope it helps you out. Roan, sabino, tobiano...all are modifiers as well.
Reply:it comes down to basic genetics. Each parent will have one set of chromosomes for their color (at least one pair). It depends on which color is a dominant trait and which is recessive. Here is an example. Say you have a female horse that has a dominant gray color--we will call it G but her grand grand pappy horse was brown and that would give her a recessive for brown (b). Now if this gray femle mated with a brown male (B--cuz he is dominantly brown) and his grand pappy horse was gray, he would be recessive for gray (g)...



So...the female (Gb) and the male (Bg) get together and make babies..this is the cross bred that you would get



Gb x Bg=

GBGg Bbgb

BGBb Gggb



It is quite more complicated than that..but you see that you would have a 50/50 chance of getting a gray or brown horse dependant on the dominant genes.



I may have confused you a bit..but it is actually quite simple and is found under hybridization in any genetics book...
Reply:this is the best website for color information....



http://www.equinecolor.com/color.html



look under color modifiers to read about the gray gene



Also, the resulting foal colors from the buckskin/gray cross would more than likely be gray, buckskin, palomino or chestnut, depending on how the genes all come together. Bay and black could also appear, although there would be less of a chance, depending on if the grandsire and dam carry dark genes.
Reply:Buchskin mare male Red Dunn.......... one baby is Red Dunn, other baby buckskin palamino with a little red
Reply:Everyone covered the gray baby part well. Here is my assessment on colors for the breeding -



Gray mare with chestnut sire %26amp; gray dam) -

Could have 2 red genes or 1 red, 1 black since we don't know the base color of the mare's dam

We also don't know if she is A/a or a/a or A/A agouti because agouti will hide on sorrel, and we don't know her dam's base color

So, she could give 1 red or 1 black gene, and one Agouti or 1 non Agouti gene

She has a 50% chance of passing her 1 gray gene



Buckskin stallion (with buckskin parent %26amp; chestnut parent)

He has 1 black gene and 1 red gene - E/e

He has at least 1 Agouti gene - A/a or A/A

He has 1 Cream gene - Cr/n



Sooooo.... because we don't know all of the info -



50.00% - Gray

12.50% - Palomino

12.50% - Chestnut

10.94% - Buckskin

10.94% - Bay

1.56% - Smoky Black

1.56% - Black
Reply:Look at the pedigree, the color is going to prob come from the stud, so look at the dominate colors in his background and that will give you a good idea of the foal's color. Now if the stud is grey, but his parents have predominate dark, then you will prob get a dark foal. Your mare may have predominately dark in her pedigree also, check it out, this will help you to determine what stud to breed with if you are looking for a specific color
Reply:it's always just a chance they will be a certain color.
Reply:Ok I love these color questions. I try and think of things to help people figure out the colors. So here is how I explain it: Colors are like walls of a house and steps on a ladder. Each color on the ladder cover the step below it so chestnut is on the bottom and black is next if you breed a chestnut to a homozygous black you will get a black. But Bay is above black so bay covers black and chestnut. Now to the walls of a house. Each wall has to be there for the house to be complete. you have a wall that is the gender, and a wall for size, a wall for color, a wall for grey, a wall for white markings, and a wall for patterns (appy/paint). Hope everyone is understanding this. Anyway you get a gene from each parent if you get a chestnut gene from dad and a grey gene from mom you have Gc which means you can give 1 of those to your kid/foal so your mare could give its get a c or chestnut gene and depending on what she was bred to would depend on whether the foal came out Palomino or chestnut of bay etc. So your mare bred to a none grey stud has a 50/50 of a grey foal bred to a grey stud it of similar parenting it would be a 75% chance of a grey.Now on to the stud you mentioned. I hate to say it but if it has a chestnut parent and a buckskin parent it would either be bay or Palomino no chance of a buckskin. This is because to get a buckskin you have to have 2 genes 1 from each parent a Bay gene and a Dilute gene (BD) and a chestnut has 2 red genes (cc) so you could have either (Bc) or (Dc) which is Bay or Palomino. If your right about the stud being buckskin then the chance/colors are as follows Bay with greying gene, Dilute with greying gene, Bay with chestnut gene hiding or a Palomino. If it is fact a palomino it would be a Chestnut with the greying gene, a Chestnut, a Dilute with the greying gene or a Palomino.



If I totally confused you and everyone on this list try reading Horse Colors Defined.