Sex-Link Question

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BarkerChickens

BarkerChickens

Microbrewing Chickenologist
12 Years
Nov 25, 2007
3,508
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High Desert, CA
I know that a black sex-link is a RIR (or similar) roo crossed with a BR hen. But, does the sex-link work the same way if the roo is a BR? I have a BR roo with our hens including JGs, mottled Javas, buckeyes, RIR, EEs, a white Leghorn, a Delaware, welsummers and BRs. I know that all chicks are barred when crossed with the BR (purebred) and delaware. Who knows with EEs and the white is questionable with the white Leghorn since I don't know if it is dominant or recessive.

But, what about the JG, mottled Javas, buckeyes, RIRs and the welsummers?

Will any of them be sex-linked?
 
You won't get sexlinks if you reverse the cross--barred rooster over red hens. You'll get both sexes barred. It has to be barred hens with a non-barred rooster to work.
 
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Thanks!
big_smile.png
That is very interesting. Why is the gene sex-linked one way, but not the reverse? I'm trying to wrap my brain around it.
 
Think back to sex-linked traits you learned in biology...a gene in mammals was sex-linked if if was located on the X chromosome. Females are XX and males are XY.

In birds, the females are ZW and the males are ZZ. Thus, a female will pass Z to her male chicks and W to her female chicks. In the case of barring, barring is located on the Z chromosome. If the mother has one copy of the barring and the father has none, the only offspring that will get the barring gene will be the males, who will get one of their Z chromosomes from their mother, while females will get the W chromosome, which does not contain barring. Normally, barred females get their barring from their father, but in sex-links, the male is not barred.
 
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Also an easy way to find out if your Leghorn is dom white is to cross with a black. My parents leghorns are dom white.
 
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Also an easy way to find out if your Leghorn is dom white is to cross with a black. My parents leghorns are dom white.

Leghorns are dominant white.
 
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Also an easy way to find out if your Leghorn is dom white is to cross with a black. My parents leghorns are dom white.

Leghorns are dominant white.

Ya sorry. I knew that just had a brain fart. LOL I should have said with white birds.
 
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That makes perfect sense. I was trying to think in XX/XY, which was why I was having trouble trying to figure it out. That I know that chickens are ZW/ZZ, essentially opposite of mammals, that makes complete sense! Thanks!!
 
As for dom white in leghorns...so, my leghorn hen crossed with my BR roo, should produce white offspring that carry the barring gene (though it would appear absent due to coloring), correct?
 

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