Silkie Sexing Project 2.0

RoostersAreAwesome · May 27, 2021

NatJ said:
I think "incompletely dominant" is the right term.

Someone a long time ago did experiments on chicken combs: single, pea, rose, and walnut (pea + rose). That person decided that rose and pea were dominant over single. There's a set of illustrations that shows up all over the internet explaining it, and they show the heterozygous pea comb, not the smaller homozygous one. So I think the experimenter either did not figure out that pure pea comb is smaller, or did not care.

Here's a typical basic-biology page with the same illustrations I keep seeing:
https://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/genetics_chicken.html
The pea comb is clearly not a tidy little one like Brahmas or Ameraucanas have!

Depends on who you are. I call it "heterozygous pea comb" when I want to be specific.

Heterozygous pea comb is a term I’d use as well. I usually use “modified pea comb” because that’s what I’ve seen it referred to the most.

TheAlrightyGina · May 27, 2021

Huh. I only roughly know how the way the genes interact to produce different combs...but I don't think incompletely dominant would apply to the gene responsible for single combs, as incomplete dominance refers to a dominant allele that is not able to completely hide the effects of a recessive allele. Unless you are referring to the ones responsible for pea being incompletely dominant...in which case, that fits.

ETA: Heterozygous pea would be useful for those in the know, but not so much for the layman...not sure what would be better. I'm gonna be silly and call it the winged bean comb.

NatJ · May 27, 2021

TheAlrightyGina said:
Huh. I only roughly know how the way the genes interact to produce different combs...but I don't think incompletely dominant would apply to the gene responsible for single combs, as incomplete dominance refers to a dominant allele that is not able to completely hide the effects of a recessive allele. Unless you are referring to the ones responsible for pea being incompletely dominant...in which case, that fits.

Yes, the last possibility is what I meant: pea is "incompletely dominant" over single comb.

TheAlrightyGina · May 27, 2021

TheAlrightyGina · May 28, 2021

Ok everybody, here's the last set of pictures! Try to get your guesses in as soon as you can so I can reveal the DNA results. It's gonna take a bit longer with the data because I am going over it all with a fine toothed comb for errors and I also need to figure out exactly how I'm presenting everything. Also if you missed any of the previous weeks, you can feel free to do those too, if you want. As long as I see it before I post the DNA results, I'll put it in the spreadsheet!

@EmmaRainboe @RoostersAreAwesome @LynnaePB @charlotte-and-the-bees @Krugerrand @HappyClucker7 @JustAChickenLoverOverHere @Chickeria