Alleles of E-locus in Wild Type Japanese Nankin Game

Abstract

It is known that wild type Japanese Nankin Game male exhibits wild type plumage and female exhibits wheaten type plumage. Present study was conducted to determine the alleles of E-locus in the wild type Japanese Nankin Game. Males and females of wild type Japanese Nakin Game which have been maintained in Fukuoka prefecture and a female which has been maintained in Kagoshima prefecture, and females of wild type Japanese Long-tailed Fowl carrying e⁺e⁺ at E-locus were used. The results obtained were as follows.
Mating between Japanese Nankin Game males from Fukuoka prefecture and Japanese Long-tailed Fowl females produced 12 yellow down, 16 diluted-striped down and 20 striped down chicks. Appearance of three down phenotypes suggests that the Japanese Nankin Game males may be heterozygous for alleles of E-locus and one of the alleles is considered to be e^Wh, since it has been demonstrated that this gene exhibits yellow down and is incompletely dominant to e⁺. Mating between these heterozygous males and femalese of Japanese Nankin Game from Fukuoka prefecture produced yellow down phenotype in all of 26 progeny, From this result, it is presumed that E-locus of these Japanese Nankin Game males may be e^Wh e^y and that of females may be e^Wh e^Wh, e^Wh e^y or e^y e^y, since it is known that ey exhibits yellow down and is recessive to e⁺.
On the other hand, mating between Japanese Nankin Game males (e^Wh e^y) and one female from Kagoshima prefecture produced 18 yellow down, 13 diluted-striped down and 4 striped down chicks. Appearance of striped down chicks indicates that this female carries e⁺, and genotype of this female is presumed to be e^Wh e⁺, because the plumage of this female is wheaten type.