A Question About Genes

[Matt73]

I think I've got this right in my head, but wanted to throw a question out there for the colour/gene experts.

So Levi's sire, Triple K's Double Your Destiny is a cremello. Levi's dam, Lexus, is a silver black. Levi is a smokey black (no visible silver markers on him whatsoever....black mane...a caramel-y tail). Does that mean that Lexus (his dam) is heterozygous for the silver gene? If she was homozygous, then all black based foals would exhibit the silver gene, right? Am I right about that?

 

[Forever Farm]

If the mare were homozygous for silver, she'd pass a copy of it to every foal she produced, so yes, the foal in question would have to express silver. Hetero means she will only have a 50% chance of passing her one copy on to the foal. The sire being a cremello, carrying two copies of creme, will always pass a creme gene to his foals regardless of base colour.

 

[Matt73]

Thanks