Genetic mapping of the novel congenital loco locus on chromosome Z in Silkie Fowl chickens

Abstract

ABSTRACT 1. ‘Congenital loco’ is a disorder in birds expressed at hatching, and the primary symptom is dorsal backward bending of the neck. It is a recessive disease caused by a mutation in a specific genetic locus. The following study identified a novel locus associated with congenital loco in Silkie Fowl chickens. 2. Normal and congenital loco-affected Silkie Fowl chicks exhibited no differences in the frequencies of markers on chromosome 12 adjacent to the congenital loco locus reported in a previous study in Rhode Island Red chickens. Sex determination of congenital loco-affectedchicks revealed that they were female only. 3. Bulked segregant analyses using next-generation sequencing narrowed the causative region of congenital loco to approximately 3.3 Mb between bases 9,569,012 and 12,863,792 on chromosome Z.