Goats expressing the tan pattern have coats pigmented completely with phaeomelanin (tan/brown pigment). The allele which codes for this pattern is located at the agouti locus of the goat genome. It is completely dominant to all other alleles on this locus. There are multiple modifier genes which control how much tan pigment is actually expressed and so a tan patterned-goat can have a coat ranging from pure white to deep red.