Testing homology of loci for two plumage colors, "lavender" and "recessive white," with chicken and Japanese quail hybrids

Abstract

Homology for two plumage color loci was studied by hybridization between chickens and Japanese quail. First, chicken-quail hybrids were produced from homozygous "lavender" chicken cocks and "bleu" Japanese quail, and all 30 hybrids had the same parental slaty blue plumage color. On the other hand, no hybrids with this plumage were obtained out of 18 progeny from the same cocks and wild-type quail. These results show that the slaty blue plumage color is determined by homologous loci in Japanese quail and chickens. Second, all (n = 25) chicken-quail hybrids hatched from homozygous "recessive white" cocks and "recessive white" (n = 8) or "wild-type" (n = 17) quail had the same pattern of plumage color, with white feathers on the ventral face and colored feathers elsewhere. These results indicate that the recessive white mutations are not homologous in Japanese quail and chickens.