Colour-sided is a colour pattern of domesticated

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

. It is sometimes called lineback.

Characteristics

The pattern consists of a dark body colour, with white finching along the spine, white under the belly, and often white also over the tail, head and legs. The ears, nose and feet are generally dark. The dark colour may be any solid colour such as black, red or

brindle Brindle is a coat (animal), coat coloring pattern in animals, particularly dogs, cattle, guinea pigs, cats, and, rarely, horses. It is sometimes described as "tiger-striped", although the brindle pattern is more subtle than that of a tiger's co ...

. The pattern may occur in many breeds, but some breeds are consistently colour-sided; these include the

English Longhorn The Longhorn or British Longhorn is a British breed of beef cattle characterised by long curving horns. It originated in northern England, in the counties of Lancashire, Westmorland and Yorkshire, and later spread to the English Midlands and to ...

, and the

Irish Moiled The Irish Moiled is a rare cattle breed from Ireland. It is a dual-purpose breed, reared for both beef and milk. It originated in County Leitrim, County Sligo, County Down, and County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, cou ...

in the British Isles, and the Randall Lineback in the United States. Among other breeds that frequently display the pattern are the

Texas Longhorn The Texas Longhorn is an American breed of beef cattle, characterized by its long horns, which can span more than from tip to tip. It derives from cattle brought from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas by Spanish conquistadors from the ti ...

, the

Florida Cracker Florida crackers are the descendants of colonial-era British American pioneer settlers in what is now the U.S. state of Florida, and a subculture of White Southerners. The first crackers arrived in 1763 after Spain traded Florida to Great Britai ...

and some African and Scandinavian breeds; it is also seen in the Belgian Blue, where it is called 'Witrik'. A similar colour pattern is seen in the

domestic yak The yak (''Bos grunniens''), also known as the Tartary ox, grunting ox, hairy cattle, or domestic yak, is a species of long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region, the Tibetan Plateau, Tajikistan, the Pamir Mountains ...

and in some zebuine cattle. An extreme pale form of the colour-sided pattern is the colour-pointed or 'white park' pattern, seen for example in the White Park, the

British White The British White is a British list of cattle breeds, breed of beef cattle. It is naturally Polled livestock, polled (without horns) and is colour-pointed – white with black or red points on the ears and Muzzle (anatomy), muzzle. It has a con ...

and in some

, where the darker colour is restricted to the ears, nose and feet, leaving most of the animal white.

Genetics

Colour-sidedness was discussed in '' The Journal of Heredity'' in 1925 by Christian Wriedt, who probably coined the term. The mechanism of transmission of the colour-pointed pattern was identified and investigated in 2011–2013 by Keith Durkin, and others. It involves an unusual translocation, through a ring-shaped intermediate DNA fragment, of the KIT gene between chromosomes 6 and 29. No genetic mutation of this type had previously been identified.

References

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