Crested Cream Legbar Genotype vs. Phenotype

[glynisD]

Crested Cream legbar (CCL) are wild type (gold duck wing), sex linked barred, and carry the cream gene. They also carry a form of autosomal red.

Autosomal red is not an actual gene but is a term for red not due to the gold allele. Hutt coined the term autosomal red. You should not use a gene symbol to represent the gene.

Autosomal red is not due to the wild type allele and is expressed by another gene or genes. I have produced silver wheaten female birds that express autosomal red. see picture below. It is also expressed in the salmon faverolle which is silver wheaten. Autosomal red is or are hypostatic to the cream gene or in other words is not diluted by the cream gene. This is why the CCL have the chestnut color in their plumage. Notice the chestnut color in the picture of my bird.

If autosomal red is added to a silver duck wing's genotype you get a golden duck wing. Golden duck wing could also be heterozygous at the silver locus.

The diluted (muted) down of the CCL male chick is not due to the cream gene; this characteristic is caused by two doses of the barring gene.

Silver does not effect the salmon breast on a wild type female. To the best of my knowledge- autosomal red does not effect the salmon breast.

CCL are gold but the cream gene will dilute the red pigment. The dilution of red can vary. Taylor's work with cream indicated that some gold males were diluted to the point that they appeared to be silver males. This is why CCL males have very diluted hackles. The barring genes also dilute the hackles.


CCL genotype is e+/e+, s+/s+, ig/ig, B/B or B/w, w/w ( yellow skin), Id/Id or Id/w ( dermal melanin inhibitor), Cr/Cr (crest), genes for white ear lobes, O/O (blue egg shell), there are other genes that deal with brown egg shell color- one is an inhibitor of brown egg shell color they may carry the gene, rapid feathering k+/k+ or k+/_W, genes for reddish bay eye color. They also carry autosomal red.

Any one interested in egg shell color can read the following paper. It is complicated.
http://www.maranschickenclubusa.com/files/eggreview.pdf



Tim

Good explanation of autosomal red Tim. As far as I'm aware there are only two sex linked genes affecting red. In silver, the wildtype allele produces phaeomelanin which is diluted in heterozygous birds, and sex-linked barring which causes white barring. I think the other genes affecting red, in either direction, are all autosomal - so autosomal red is due to a variety of genes and unlikely to be a particular gene on its own.