Wyandotte Genetics Question! (Need someone who's very familiar with genetics to explain)

[ChickenLeg]

I've asked this question in the forums already, but I was wanting an experts advice. If I cross a Golden Laced Wyandotte roo with Silver Laced Wyandotte hens, what will their offspring look like? and please explain why they will look the way they do?

 

[Henk69]

The pattern is the same in the parents only the groundcolor differs.
The groundcolor gold/silver is determined by a sexlinked gene S.
Gold s+ is the wildtype and recessive to silver S.
Because the mode of inheritance is sexlinked all the female crosslings get the gold gene from their father, and nothing from their mother, so they will be gold.
All the sons get the gold gene from their father too, but they also get the dominant silver gene from their mother and therefor look (more or less yellowish) silver.

 

[pastorwalt]

I'm not the expert you are waiting for
but...
If you are just wondering why all of the females will be gold s+/-
and the males yellow/golden. S/s+
It's because Silver (S) and Gold (s+) are sex linked.
they occur on the Z sex chromosome
In birds, unlike mammals, females have a Z and a W sex chromosome
Males have 2 Z's (in Mammals XX=female, XY=male)
so your hens pass one or the other to each of their chicks

the chicks which get a Z from your SLW hen will be male
they will pick up the silver (S) gene on her Z chromosome
They will get another Z chromosome from the roo with s+
So they will be S/s+. (one of these could sire both Gold and Silver hens)

the chicks which get a W from your SLW hen will be female
They will get their Z chromosome from the roo and with it his "S"gene
since they will have no gene for Silver they will be Gold

Walt

 

[pastorwalt]

while I was typing away the real expert answered much more succinctly

 

[ChickenLeg]

thanks guys, i kinda understand now