Differences in morphology and genetic structure associated to the coat colour in PRE horses

SARA NEGRO RAMA; MERCEDES VALERA; SEBASTIÁN DEMYDA PEYRÁS; MARIA JOSE SANCHEZ GUERRERO

Tallim

Congreso; The 68th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science; 2017

European Federation of Animal Science

Mutations in the genes influencing melanocytes are associated not only with the horse coat colour variability, but also with their behaviour. However, their influence in morphological traits was not yet described. In this study, we assessed 23 morphological measurements (MM) on a population of 34,402 PRE horses and its association with the four basic coat colours of the breed (grey, brown, chestnut and black). Additionally, a large-scale molecular data set (17 STR markers from 174,036 individuals) was analysed in order to also determine their genetic diversity and structure. The historical population was composed by 304,289 PRE: 169,987 grey, 28,801 black, 98,507 brown and 6,994 chestnut horses. Phenotypic analysis showed significant differences between the subpopulations and morphological traits (P < 0.01). 22/23 traits were highly different (P