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

( ) polygenic inheritance

( ) mendelian inheritance

( ) recessive inheritance

Answer 1

(•) mendelian inheritance

Reason: Coat color is determined by interactions of two specific genes (Extension and Agouti) with Mendelian alleles (including epistasis), not by many additive genes (polygenic) nor a single simple dominant/recessive trait.