Sex–linked inheritance of hearing and song in the Belgian Waterslager canary

Abstract

Belgian Waterslager canaries have less sensitive hearing at high frequencies and produce songs with more energy at low frequencies than wild-type canaries. A backcross pedigree between Belgian Waterslager canaries and a domestic strain with wild-type song revealed inheritance patterns consistent with a factor of major effect located on the Z sex chromosome affecting both poor high-frequency hearing at 4 kHz and the relative energy in the spectra of the learned songs of males. Hearing thresholds at 4 kHz were significant predictors of the relative amount of song energy at 4 kHz for individual males. One hypothesis for the mechanistic basis of this correlation between hearing and song abnormalities is that a reduction in the ability to hear higher-frequency songs biases males towards learning lower-frequency songs.