Abstract
Silky-feather has been selected and fixed in some breeds due to its unique appearance. This phenotype is caused by a single recessive gene (hookless, h). Here we map the silky-feather locus to chromosome 3 by linkage analysis and subsequently fine-map it to an 18.9 kb interval using the identical by descent (IBD) method. Further analysis reveals that a C to G transversion located upstream of the prenyl (decaprenyl) diphosphate synthase, subunit 2 (PDSS2) gene is causing silky-feather. All silky-feather birds are homozygous for the G allele. The silky-feather mutation significantly decreases the expression of PDSS2 during feather development in vivo. Consistent with the regulatory effect, the C to G transversion is shown to remarkably reduce PDSS2 promoter activity in vitro. We report a new example of feather structure variation associated with a spontaneous mutation and provide new insight into the PDSS2 function.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | e1004576 |
Journal | PLoS genetics |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 28 2014 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding: This work was supported by grants from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2011AA100301), National Key Technologies R&D Program (2011BAD28B03), Key Technology Research and Development Program of Guangdong Emerging Strategic Industries (2012A020800005) and 948 Program of the Ministry of Agriculture of China (2012-G1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2011AA100301), National Key Technologies R&D Program (2011BAD28B03), Key Technology Research and Development Program of Guangdong Emerging Strategic Industries (2012A020800005) and 948 Program of the Ministry of Agriculture of China (2012-G1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Feng et al.