Abstract
Although the genetic foundation of chicken body feather color has been extensively explored, that of tail feather color remains poorly understood. In the present study, we used a synthetic chicken dwarf line (DW), derived from hybrids bred between a black tail chicken breed, Rhode Island Red (RIR), and a white tail breed, dwarf layer (DL), to investigate the genetic rules associated white/black tail color. Even though the body feathers are predominantly red, the DW line still comprises individuals with black or white tails after more than 10 generations of self-crossing and selection for the body feather color. We first performed four crosses using the DW chickens, including black-tailed males to females, reciprocal crosses between the black and white, and white males to females to elucidate the inheritance pattern of the white/black tail. We also performed a genome-wide association (GWA) analysis to determine the candidate genomic regions underlying the tail feather color using black tail chickens from the RIR and DW lines and white individuals from the DW line. In the crossing experiment, we found that (i) the white/black tail feather color is independent of body feather color; (ii) the phenotype is a simple autosomal trait; and (iii) the white is dominant to the black in the DW line. The GWA results showed that seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 24 were significantly correlated with tail feather color. The significant region (3.97–4.26 Mb) comprises nine known genes (NECTIN1, THY1, gga-mir-1466, USP2, C1QTNF5, RNF26, MCAM, CBL, and CCDC153) and five anonymous genes. This study revealed that the white/black tail feather trait is autosome-linked in DW chickens. Fourteen genes were found in the significant ~0.29 Mb genomic region, and some, especially MCAM, are suggested to play critical roles in the determination of white/black tail feather color. Our research is the first study on the genetics underlying tail feather color and could help further the understanding of feather pigmentation in chickens.
Highlights
Tail feather color can be different from body feather color in birds
We found that the white/black tail feather color is a Mendelian trait, and the white is dominant to the black (Table 1)
Because the red body feather and tail feather colors were segregated, we concluded that the genes controlling white/black tail color were different from those controlling red body feather color; there was no epistatic effect between them
Summary
Tail feather color can be different from body feather color in birds. Compared with body feather color, the genetic basis of chicken tail feather color remains poorly defined. Tail feather color is a naturally and sexually selected trait in chickens, as well as in wild birds such as the rock sparrow (Griggio et al, 2011), barn swallow (Kose and Møller, 1999), and peacock (Weiss and Kirchner, 2010), and is combined with artificial selection in poultry, especially chickens. Black and white are predominant tail feather colors in chickens; some chicken breeds display red, blue, yellow, purple, or multi-colored tail feathers. Feather color is a genetically complex trait, the foundation of which has been extensively explored in birds (Delmore et al, 2016; Cooke et al, 2017), especially chickens. The sex-linked barring feather pattern is controlled by the CDKN2A/B locus (Hellstrom et al, 2010)
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