Cream gene

Common card · No. 432044

The cream gene is responsible for a number of horse coat colors. Horses that have the cream gene in addition to a base coat color that is chestnut will become palomino if they are heterozygous, having one copy of the cream gene, or cremello, if they are homozygous. Similarly, horses with a bay base coat and the cream gene will be buckskin or perlino. A black base coat with the cream gene becomes the not-always-recognized smoky black or a smoky cream. Cream horses, even those with blue eyes, are not white horses. Dilution coloring is also not related to any of the white spotting patterns. The cream gene (CCr) is an incomplete dominant allele with a distinct dosage effect. The DNA sequence responsible for the cream colors is the cream allele, which is at a specific locus on the solute carrier family 45 member 2 (SLC45A2) gene (previously known as MATP and OCA4, among others). Its general effect is to lighten the coat, skin and eye colors. When one copy of the allele is present, it dilutes...

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