COMPLEMENTARY GENES CONTROLLING A 'PHENODEVIANT' IN JAPANESE QUAIL

Abstract

Pose-hatch crooked neck in Japanese quail is a 'phenodeviant' by virtue of a consistently low population incidence (< 0.5%) and because of a very low recurrence risk among full-sibs of affected quail (< 5%). Genetic determination of phenodeviants is generally assumed to be essentially polygenic. In this study, however, a significantly large inbreeding effect and other evidence indicated that this 'phenodeviant' is controlled by recessive genes at only two loci.