Abstract
The Silky fowl is a famous black-boned chicken breed; adult Silky fowl are characterized
by low body weight and produces less number of eggs. Current research efforts have mainly focused on the
improvement in egg production. Previous studies have indicated a relationship between egg production and
DNA markers and a high genetic variation in Silky fowls in the Oita’s selection population. We have embarked
on the improvement in the rate of egg production in this specific population. Some valuable markers
related with egg production include the prolactin receptor and the growth hormone receptor, which were
localized to the Z chromosome. In this study, five DNA markers on the Z chromosome were analyzed in
the 5th generation of the Oita’s Silky fowl population. Genotyping of five DNA markers was performed using
polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) to study the relationship
between DNA marker and production trait. The relationship was analyzed by linear mixed model using SAS
Mixed procedure. Hatching group and genotype effects of five DNA markers were included as fixed effect in
the model. Sire and dam effect was included as random effect. Genotypes and trait values were obtained for
202 female and 58 male individuals of the 5th generation. In the females, rs16773406 showed significance for
egg production rate (p< 0.05), and for body weight at 150 days of age (p< 0.001). Markers rs15991083 showed
significance for average egg weight (p< 0.05). In the males, embigin and rs15991083 showed significance for
body weight at 150 days of age (p< 0.05), whereas rs16763148 and rs16773406 showed significance for body
weight at 300 days of age (p< 0.05).
