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Evaluation of HOXC 8 in crested Swiss chicken
Author(s) -
Joller S.,
Ammann P.,
Flury C.,
Drögemüller C.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
animal genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.756
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2052
pISSN - 0268-9146
DOI - 10.1111/age.12674
Subject(s) - biology , genetics , crest , phenotype , locus (genetics) , breed , neural crest , evolutionary biology , gene , physics , quantum mechanics
Summary The crest in chicken consists of elongated and upraised feathers, as seen in various breeds such as the Silkie chicken. Recently, the still unknown causative mutation for the crest phenotype was assigned to chromosome 33 and an ectopic expression of HOXC 8 was shown. The aim this study was to evaluate whether the crest phenotype in a local Swiss chicken breed, the Appenzeller Spitzhaubenhuhn, is associated with HOXC 8 . Three previously reported crest‐associated flanking markers at the HOXC 8 locus were genotyped in cohorts of this breed and two other local breeds without the crest phenotype. For the Appenzeller Spitzhaubenhuhn chicken showing the crest phenotype, no clear association of the reported markers could be revealed. Furthermore, the two exons of HOXC 8 were sequenced in crested chicken of the Appenzeller Spitzhaubenhuhn and Silkie breeds and revealed no evidence of polymorphisms within the coding region of HOXC 8 . Therefore, the molecular genetic etiology for the crest phenotype in the investigated breeds remains unclear.