Dominant White (Wh)
The author learned about the
inheritance of dominant white pigeons in a breeding project to
transfer color traits to a breed, now more than 50 years ago. The
project and the kind of inheritance was despicted 40 years ago in
the German language brochure 'Inheritance in Pigeons'. Essential
findings such as the dominant epistatic effect of Wh can already be
seen from the results of the first two breeding years of the
project.
Fig. 1: The way to colored
(non-white) Pomeranian Eye-Crested Highflyers excerpt from the
breeding plan shown in ‘Pigeon Genetics. Applied Genetics in the
Domestic Pigeon’, Achim 2012.
White pigeons with orange or
pearl eyes are not always homozygous grizzles G on an ash-red
(dominant red) basis as was believed in early days and from many
fanciers still today. That can be seen in some of them at the black
feathers in the neck area and dark or dark-flecked beaks. It can be
concluded also from young with dark stork tails that sometimes are
raised from pure white couples. At least the cock is then not
homozygous ash red and the couple is heterozygous Dominant White
only.
The explanation does not lie
in the dominance of the white factor in respect to the traits
detected, but in the complete or partial coverage of non-allelic
other traits. And that even in the case that Dominant White is only
present in heterozygous state – thus ‘dominant’.
Fig. 3: Youngster with black
tail marking from white parents
What is covered in the most
recent finding at white Flying Stralsund in addition to the base
color is left to speculation without tests. Candidates for reedy,
grizzle appearance in whole or parts of the plumage are always
undergrizzle, flash grizzle, pencil, veined, etc. There is still a
lot to question here. Dominant White was described alongside
recessive white, albinos and others as early as 1925. The findings
of Walker have been forgotten for a long time and despite later
confirmation have not yet got around in the fancy when we follow the
recent discussions in the social media about unexpected results in
the mating of white pigeons. For a deeper understanding of the
relationships, however, you also need to know more than just
dominance and recessiveness, you should also know something about
covering (epistatic) effects and other mechanisms of the interaction
of genetic factors. Detailed discussions can be found in the books
'Pigeon Genetics' and in German, particularly detailed, but out of
print and only available in antiquarian books or libraries, in
'Genetics of Pigeon Colors' (Genetik der Taubenfärbungen).
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Fig. 4: Dominant White F1
Pomeranian Eye Crested Highflyer and veined variants at Danzig
Highfliers, Source: Sell, Pigeon Genetics, Applied Genetics in the
Domestics Pigeon, Achim 2012
Literature:
Sell, Axel, Pigeon Genetics.
Applied Genetics in the Domestic Pigeon, Achim 2012.
Sell, Axel, Genetik der Taubenfärbungen, Achim
2015.
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