This phenotype is associated with one copy of the frame (LWOS) mutation. Horses with two copies are not viable.

This post first appeared on November 3, 2011
In the previous post, I talked about how the physical location of a mutation can limit the possible pattern combination. There is another potential limitation, which is the viability of the organism.

Those of us that like horse colors, particularly the white patterns, are accustomed to thinking of colors as something that is added to what would otherwise be a horse of ordinary coloring. So the horse above has white markings on his body in addition to his chestnut coloring. That is certainly how a lot of artists would approach painting such a horse.

But from a genetic standpoint, that’s not what has happened. Generally speaking, white patterns result when one of the genes involved in pigmentation is impaired. Something prevents the normal function of the gene, and as a result, pigment is not distributed in the normal fashion.  That is what we see most clearly because changes to coloration are really obvious. But those same genes do not just regulate color, and those other functions may be affected as well. Hampering coloration is largely cosmetic, but altering the function of the gene can have more serious implications.

That’s why horses with two copies of the frame mutation are not viable. With just one impaired gene, the horse is not completely pigmented (ie., it has white patches) but is still functional. The horse still has one non-mutated copy of EDNRB, the gene involved with the frame pattern. It can “pick up the slack” for the necessary functions that gene performs. When the horse inherits two copies of the mutation, there is no backup and the gene cannot perform its function in the development of the embryo. In this particular case, no pigmentation occurs, which is why the resulting foals are white, but more importantly, the colon is incomplete which means the foal cannot survive.

Lethal White Syndrome is probably one of the best-known problems with color because it involves the heartbreak of a live birth of a foal that must be humanely euthanized. Other colors, most notably the various forms of Dominant White, are also thought to be lethal when homozygous. Like the frame mutation, two copies impair the function of the gene to the point that the embryo is no longer viable. The difference between Dominant White and Frame Overo is that the embryo is lost early enough that no foal is born. This may explain why programs centered around breeding white-born horses in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were often plagued by infertility issues.

In the past, before tests were available, lethal conditions like this were determined by analyzing production numbers. If the ratio of mutated to non-mutated offspring was off, and if true-breeding individuals could not be found, the trait was suspected of being lethal when homozygous. That was why roan was assumed to be a homozygous lethal for so long. Initial studies of production records showed that the ratios of mutated offspring were like those of a homozygous lethal, rather than a simple dominant. Proven homozygous roan stallions have since been identified, so it is clear that two roan genes are not always lethal, at the very least.

So what does this have to do with the KIT mutations? In the comments section, there was speculation of the last post about whether or not mutations could crossover, resulting in a single gene with two separate mutations, rather than two separate genes with one mutation on each. Not asked, but an equally valid question, is whether or not a gene that already contained a known mutation could mutate again. If either were to happen, the next question would be: could the situation result in a viable embryo? Would the added layer of impairment change the coloring, or would it damage or even destroy the organism? Have we not yet seen a horse with three copies of some of these patterns because the statistical chances are infinitesimally small, or because the function of some gene is too compromised to result in a viable embryo? For those involved in hypothetical situations of this sort – like artists or simulation game developers – that is another aspect of color genetics that has to be considered.