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Identification of the Yellow Skin Gene Reveals a Hybrid Origin of the Domestic Chicken

Eriksson, J.; Larson, G.; Gunnarsson, U.; Bed'hom, B.; Tixier-Boichard, M.; Strömstedt, L.; Wright, D.; Jungerius, A.; Vereijken, A.; Randi, E.; Jensen, P.; Andersson, L.

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Authors

J. Eriksson

G. Larson

U. Gunnarsson

B. Bed'hom

M. Tixier-Boichard

L. Strömstedt

D. Wright

A. Jungerius

A. Vereijken

E. Randi

P. Jensen

L. Andersson



Abstract

Yellow skin is an abundant phenotype among domestic chickens and is caused by a recessive allele (W*Y) that allows deposition of yellow carotenoids in the skin. Here we show that yellow skin is caused by one or more cis-acting and tissue-specific regulatory mutation(s) that inhibit expression of BCDO2 (beta-carotene dioxygenase 2) in skin. Our data imply that carotenoids are taken up from the circulation in both genotypes but are degraded by BCDO2 in skin from animals carrying the white skin allele (W*W). Surprisingly, our results demonstrate that yellow skin does not originate from the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), the presumed sole wild ancestor of the domestic chicken, but most likely from the closely related grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii). This is the first conclusive evidence for a hybrid origin of the domestic chicken, and it has important implications for our views of the domestication process.

Citation

Eriksson, J., Larson, G., Gunnarsson, U., Bed'hom, B., Tixier-Boichard, M., Strömstedt, L., …Andersson, L. (2008). Identification of the Yellow Skin Gene Reveals a Hybrid Origin of the Domestic Chicken. PLoS Genetics, 4(2), Article e1000010. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000010

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2008
Deposit Date Mar 12, 2012
Publicly Available Date Feb 26, 2014
Journal PLoS Genetics
Print ISSN 1553-7390
Electronic ISSN 1553-7404
Publisher Public Library of Science
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 4
Issue 2
Article Number e1000010
DOI https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000010

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Copyright: © 2008 Eriksson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.





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