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The dun gene is a dilution gene that affects both red and black pigments in the coat color of a horse. The dun gene lightens most of the body while leaving the mane, tail, legs, and primitive markings the shade of the undiluted base coat color. A dun horse always has a dark dorsal stripe down the middle of its back, usually has a darker face ...
Every dun horse has a dorsal stripe, and some dun horses also have additional primitive markings. Some non-dun horses may also show primitive markings, namely newborn foals and horses with the non-dun 1 gene. [1] [4] Primitive markings in horses are an example of atavism: preservation of or reversion to ancestral type.
A dilution gene that produces what looks like point coloration, but from a completely different genetic mechanism is the dominant Dun gene, which dilutes the color of the body coat but not the points, including primitive markings—a dorsal stripe down the back and, less often, horizontal striping on the upper legs. On a bay base coat the dun ...
The dun gene lightens some areas of the horse's coat, while leaving a darker dorsal stripe, mane, tail, face, and legs. Depending on whether it acts on a bay, black, or chestnut base coat, the dun gene produces the colors known as bay dun, grullo, and red dun.
The dun gene also produces light guard hairs in the mane and the tail. Grullo [ 1 ] (pronounced GREW-yo) [ 2 ] [ a ] or grulla is a color of horses in the dun family, characterized by tan-gray or mouse-colored hairs on the body, often with shoulder and dorsal stripes and black barring on the lower legs.
The legs may sometimes have zebra-like black stripes; these, along with the dorsal stripe seen on all dun horses, are called primitive markings. Over 42,000 years ago, a mutation called non-dun 1 appeared, which allowed horses to be bay. Non-dun 1 replaces the tan dun color with the darker brown of bay, but keeps the primitive markings seen on dun.
Brown dun, a result of the dilution effect of the dun gene. Like all duns, brown duns have conspicuous primitive markings including at least a dorsal stripe and darker points. The primitive markings of brown duns are black, and the coat color is somewhere between the slate gray of a grulla and the tan of a bay dun.
A red dun has a light reddish- tan body and dark red primitive markings and points. Red duns have a chestnut base coat with the dun gene (one or two copies). Their body color is pale, dusty tan shade that resembles the light undercoat color of a body-clipped chestnut but with a bold, dark dorsal stripe in dark red, a red mane, tail and legs.