DiscoverVet CandyWhy Do Some Gray Horses Turn White? Scientists Reveal the Genetic Secret Behind Their Color Change"
Why Do Some Gray Horses Turn White? Scientists Reveal the Genetic Secret Behind Their Color Change"

Why Do Some Gray Horses Turn White? Scientists Reveal the Genetic Secret Behind Their Color Change"

Update: 2024-11-21
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Scientists from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) and Uppsala University in Sweden now understand why some gray horses turn completely white as they age, while others remain an eye-catching “dappled” gray color. 


As published in the journal Nature Communications, the deciding factor is the number of copies of a small DNA sequence within the gray coat gene carried by each horse; while “slow-graying” horses have a gene variant with two copies of the duplication, “fast-graying” horses — those that will eventually become white — have a gene variant with three copies.

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Why Do Some Gray Horses Turn White? Scientists Reveal the Genetic Secret Behind Their Color Change"

Why Do Some Gray Horses Turn White? Scientists Reveal the Genetic Secret Behind Their Color Change"

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