Abstract
White-feathered and dark-feathered Japanese quail were crossed with yellow-feathered ones, and their offspring of several plumage color types including wild, white, dark, brown, yellow, mosaic type of dark and white, and mosaic type of brown and white were subjected to genetical analysis.
These types of plumage color are determined by the combinations of three pairs of autosomal allelic genes, namely, + and +D, Y and y, and I and i.
The yellow plumage color gene (Y) that has a lethal effect in the homozygous form is not allelic to + (wild) or +D (dark) but dominant to another wild color gene (y). The heterozygosity for these (Y/y) is epistatic to +/+, and +/+, Y/y forms Yellow plumage color with I/I or I/i. +D/+D, Y/y and +/+D, Y/y gives dark and brown plumage color, respectively, indicating that the homozygous and/or heterozygous condition for dark gene (+D/+D and +/+D) always epistatic to Y/y.
The homozygosity for melanine inhibiting gene (i/i) inhibits the yellow plumage in the same manner as it inhibits the wild, dark and brown plumage.
