Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Allelic Heterogeneity At The Equine Kit Locus In Dominant White (W) Horses, Bianca Haase, Samantha A. Brooks, Angela Schlumbaum, Pedro J. Azor, Ernest Bailey, Ferial Alaeddine, Meike Mevissen, Dominik Burger, Pierre-André Poncet, Stefan Rieder, Tosso Leeb

Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

White coat color has been a highly valued trait in horses for at least 2,000 years. Dominant white (W) is one of several known depigmentation phenotypes in horses. It shows considerable phenotypic variation, ranging from approximately 50% depigmented areas up to a completely white coat. In the horse, the four depigmentation phenotypes roan, sabino, tobiano, and dominant white were independently mapped to a chromosomal region on ECA 3 harboring the KIT gene. KIT plays an important role in melanoblast survival during embryonic development. We determined the sequence and genomic organization of the approximately 82 kb equine KIT gene. A mutation …