Since the discovery of LP - the main gene that controls appaloosa spotting patterns and associated traits - breeders have been anticipating DNA tests for the genes that work with LP to produce white appaloosa patterning.
Thanks to the outstanding work by the Appaloosa Project and UC Davis, the white pattern modifier gene with the largest pattern causing effect, termed Pattern-1 for “first pattern gene” or PATN1 for short, can now be DNA tested for.
The DNA test for PATN1 is useful in a number of different ways:
- To determine whether a loudly patterned horse has PATN1, or owes its extensive patterning to a combination of other PATN modifiers
- To determine whether a minimally-patterned horse with PATN1-patterned parents has inherited PATN1, with reduced expression
- To confirm whether or not a horse with extensive PATN1-type patterning is heterozygous or homozygous for the PATN1 mutation
- To test a true solid (has no copies of the LP mutation) that has a parent or parents with PATN1 to determine whether it has been inherited. Remember that true solids with PATN1 are potentially very valuable breeding animals – this is the first time in history that these horses can be identified definitively.
How to test
UC Davis is the only lab in the world offering the PATN1 DNA test and you can order it here.
Second and third tests listed under “Tests Offered”, Appaloosa Spotting is the test for LP, and Appaloosa Pattern-1 is the test for PATN1. You can get both tests done for $40, or one for $25.
