In other species: taurine cattle , indicine cattle (zebu)

Categories: Integument (skin) phene

Single-gene trait/disorder: yes

Mode of inheritance: Autosomal dominant

Disease-related: no

Key variant known: no

Cross-species summary: The coat/fleece is shed naturally on a seasonal basis.

Species-specific name: Fleece shedding

Inheritance: A segregation analysis reported by Pollott (2011) provided evidence for an autosomal dominant gene of large effect associated with natural wool shedding in a flock comprising a mixture of shedding breeds. When scored on a 5-point scale (1 = no shedding; 5 = complete shedding), shedding was reported to have a heritability of 0.54 in lambs and 0.26 across all ages. Matika et al. (2013) "found strong genetic control for wool shedding, demonstrated the possibility of a single putative dominant gene controlling this trait and identified four SNPs that may be in partial linkage disequilibrium with gene(s) controlling shedding."