Question

Horses have three basic coat colors: red (or chestnut), bay, and black. All the colors are controlled by the interaction of two genes, called Extension (E) and Agouti (A). The following combinations produce the bay color: EE/Aa, EeAa, EE/AA, and Ee/AA. Only two produce black color: EE/aa and Ea/aa. Other combinations of the alleles of these genes plus mutations of other genes result in many possible coat colors and patterns in horses.

What type of inheritance does coat color in horses represent?

(1 point)
Responses

dominant inheritance
dominant inheritance

polygenic inheritance
polygenic inheritance

mendelian inheritance
mendelian inheritance

recessive inheritance

Answer 1

mendelian inheritance

Explanation: coat color is determined by alleles at two specific genes (Extension and Agouti) interacting in predictable Mendelian genotype→phenotype patterns (epistasis), not by many genes (polygenic) or a single simple dominant/recessive trait.