• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.117-125
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• 2024

This study aimed to find genetic markers for breed-independent identification of early- and late-feathering chickens. We explored the novel sequences of the ev21-K locus associated with late-feathering and investigated its characterization. Additionally, the genetic transmission pattern of the identified sequences were investigated to understand its potential application in auto-sexing lines. A total of 707 chickens from 5 chicken breeds were employed for the study. The ev21-K locus was identified through a comparative analysis of the ev21 gene and the K gene related to feather development. For analysis of identified loci, specific primers for the target sequences were prepared and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to obtain the products, and then their nucleotide sequences were analyzed. Crossbreeding tests of early-feathering and late-feathering chickens were conducted to examine the genetic transmission patterns of the identified sequences. The results showed that the identified 230 bp ev21-K locus, which named as ev21-related K specific sequences were 99% homology with the ev21 gene. PCR analysis confirmed its presence exclusively in late-feathering chickens. Comparative analyses across tissues, breeds, and ages demonstrated the sequences consistency in identifying late-feathering chickens. Genetic transmission patterns were investigated through crossbreeding tests, revealing sex-linked inheritance and consistent segregation with feathering phenotypes. The inheritance patterns of the ev21-related K specific sequences demonstrated that this locus follows the typical Mendelian inheritance pattern as a dominant gene. In conclusion, the novel sequences of ev21-K locus were a reliable molecular marker for identifying early- and late-feathering chickens across breeds.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2021

Although feather-sexing using sex-linked genes related to feather development is a widely used chick sexing method in the poultry industry, the feather-sexing method has yet to be used for Korean native chickens (KNCs). The purpose of this study was to construct a KNC feather-sexing line using early-feathering (EF) and late-feathering (LF) genes for industrial application. Using 557 reddish-brown KNCs as the basal flock, frequencies of the EF (k) and LF (K) genes were estimated to be 0.814 and 0.186, respectively. This indicating that it would be feasible to construct a feather-sexing line using this chicken group, and we accordingly constructed EF paternal and LF maternal lines. On the basis of test-cross for the selection of LF homozygous (KK) males in the maternal line, we confirmed that three of 40 chickens were homozygous males. The survival rate, body weight, days at first egg-laying, hen-day egg production, and egg weight were analyzed to compare the production performance of EF and LF chickens. The results revealed that EF chickens were characterized by a superior survival rate, whereas LF chickens were superior in terms of egg production rate. However, no differences between LF and EF chickens were detected with respect to other production performance parameters. In addition, assessment of the fitness of sexed chicks produced in the established KNC feather-sexing lines revealed that the accuracy of sexing was 98.6%. Collectively, these findings indicate the feasibility of constructing effective KNC feather-sexing lines with potential industrial application.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2012

The method of sexing based on differences in the rate of feather growth provides a convenient and inexpensive approach. The locus of feather development gene (K) is located on the Z chromosome and can be utilized to produce phenotypes that distinguish between the sexes of chicks at hatching. To establish the auto-sexing native chicken strains, this study analyzed the genotype frequency of the feathering in domestic chicken breeds. The method of classification of slow- and rapid-feathering chickens was also investigated. In the slow-feathering chicks, the coverts were either the same length or longer than the primary wing feathers at hatching. However, the rapid-feathering chicks had the primary wing feathers that were longer than the coverts. The growth pattern of tail feather also distinctively differed between the rapid- and slow-feathering chicks after 5-days. The accuracy of wing feather sexing was about 98% compared with tail sexing. In domestic chicken breeds, Korean Black Cornish, Korean Rhode Island Red, and Korean Native Chicken-Red had both dominant (K) and recessive ($k^+$) feathering genes. The other breeds of chickens, Korean Brown Cornish, Ogol, White Leghorn, Korean Native Chicken-Yellow, -Gray, -White and -Black had only the recessive feathering gene ($k^+$). Consequently, feather sexing is available using the domestic chicken breeds. Establishing the maternal stock with dominant gene (K-) and paternal stock with recessive gene ($k^+k^+$), the slow-feathering characteristic is passed from mothers to their sons, and the rapid-feathering characteristic is inherited by daughters from their fathers.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.155-165
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• 2018

Chicken feathers could be classified into early-feathering (EF) and late-feathering (LF) depending on the development and patterns of the wing and tail feathers. Currently, feather-sexing is a widely used chick sexing method in the industry. This study was carried out to suggest the method of classifying of EF and LF chicks to establish auto-sexing Korean native chicken (KNC) strains. The development and morphology of wing feathers and tail feathers in 856 KNCs from hatching to 55-days old were analyzed to classify EF and LF chicks. We also performed PCR analysis using K-specific gene primers to confirm the agreement between the phenotypes and genotypes of EF and LF chickens. In the results, the EF chicks had long primaries and coverts, and there was a significant difference in length between primaries and coverts. The LF chicks had shorter primaries and coverts than the EF chicks, and showed little difference in the length between primaries and coverts. LF chicks could be classified into four groups: LF-Less, LF-Scant, LF-Equal and LF-Reverse according to their wing feather patterns. EF chicks had 1.5 times longer primaries than LF chicks until they were 15-days old, but the lengths were almost the same at 50-days old. The tail feathers of the EF chicks were apparent at 5-days old, but those of the LF chicks were short and indefinite at that time. When EF and LF chicks were classified by the length of primaries being more or less than 9 mm, the classification accuracies for EF and LF chicks were 96.2% and 85.4%, respectively, compared to the PCR results. In conclusion, juvenile EF and LF KNC showed distinct differences in feather development and morphology, and could be easily distinguished at one day-old.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2024

The feather-sexing method is widely used commercially for chick sex identification. However, for feather-sexing to be industrially practical, the early-feathering (EF) and late-feathering (LF) genes must existed within the foundation stock, a suitable feather-sexing lines must be established, and the accuracy of sex identification by feather-sexing must be ensured. Therefore, this study introduces the method of constructing the Korean native chickens (KNC) feather-sexing lines using EF and LF genes and evaluates the effectiveness of feather sex determination on commercial chicks produced from the constructed KNC lines. The results showed that both EF and LF chickens existed within the foundation stock, with the frequency of LF genes ranging from 0 to 0.205. In feather-sexing line establishment, the paternal strain of the grandparent stock (GPS) was fixed as EF (kk) for both sexes, while the maternal strain was composed of males with LF homozygotes (Z^KZ^K) and females with EF (Z^kW). Thus, in the parent stock (PS), male breeder had EF (Z^kZ^k) and female breeder had LF (Z^KW), resulting in chicks produced from their crosses having LF (Z^KZ^k) for males and EF (Z^kW) for females, allowing sex determination based on feather development. Additionally, to evaluate the effectiveness of feather-sexing for the produced commercial chicks, a study was conducted on 1,000 samples of the produced chicks to investigate the concordance between vent-sexing and feather-sexing, showing a matching rate of 93.1%.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.279-286
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• 2019

Currently, feather-sexing, which is based on differences in feather development at hatching, is a widely used chick sexing method in the poultry industry. For effective chicken feather-sexing, paternal early-feathering (EF) chickens and maternal late-feathering (LF) chickens must be bred. Therefore, it is critical to identify the effect of EF and LF patterns on production traits in chickens. Thus, the purpose of this study is to analyze and compare the production performances between 522 EF and 232 LF chickens in order to establish the Korean native chicken feather-sexing lines. The results showed that the survival rate of the LF group was significantly higher than that of the EF group from hatching to 52 weeks of age (P<0.05). Body weight, however, was not significantly different between the two groups at all ages. LF and EF groups did not significantly differ in age at first egg laying. However, the hen-day and hen-housed egg production of the LF group were significantly higher than those of EF group (P<0.01). No significant differences were found between the EF and LF groups in all egg quality indicators such as egg weight, eggshell color, albumin height and Haugh unit. Because the breeding target of Korean native commercial chicken is meat-type chicken, feather-sexing strains of Korean native chicken should be established using weighing-based paternal EF lines and laying-based maternal LF lines. Therefore, these results are critical for establishing desirable and effective feather-sexing strains.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.726-728
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• 2010

Autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (AD-PKD) is common in Persian and Persian-related breeds, and is sporadically reported in Scottish Fold cats. A 5-year-old male Scottish Fold cat was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease based on screening tests and abdominal ultrasonography and died 3.5 months after diagnosis. The cat had 14 kittens with three queens, including his female sibling, with an age range of 3 months to 8 years. Genetic testing to confirm the genetic transmission of AD-PKD which detects the mutated PKD1 gene was performed. Abdominal ultrasonography confirmed the presence of renal cysts. Nineteen cats were screened in the present study (13 males and 6 females), with an age range of 3 months to 8 years. The results of renal ultrasonography agreed with the genetic test results in the 19 cats in which both tests were performed and 8 cats were diagnosed as ADPKD based on these tests. AD-PKD has not been investigated in cats in South Korea. Moreover, this is the first report of AD-PKD in a family unit of Scottish Fold cats.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.263-270
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• 2013

The vent sexing and the auto-sexing by using sex-linked traits are general sexing methods of day-old chicks. Currently, the feather sexing which is based on the differences in the feather characteristics at hatching is the representative sexing method of chicken, because the late-feathering is sex-linked trait. The feather sexing can be used if the breed has dominant feathering gene (K) in maternal and recessive gene ($k^+$) in paternal. Therefore it is necessary to identify the association of feathering genes and quantitative traits in chickens. In this study, we investigated the influence of the rate of feathering on productive traits in Korean Native Chicken. In results, there was no significant difference between early-feathering chickens and late-feathering chickens in reproductive performance such as fertility and hatchability. Livability, body weights, egg production, egg weight and egg quality also did not significantly differ between early- and late-feathering chickens. Age at first egg was the only trait of those tested in which significant difference was observed. The early-feathering chickens laid eggs 3 days earlier than late-feathering chicken. As a result, there is no influence of feathering phenotypes on productive performance in Korean Native Chickens. Consequentially, establishing the feather sexing strain is available using the Korean Native Chicken breed without considering of the effect of feathering genes on productive traits.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.146-154
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• 2009

Multiplex ligation dependent probe amplification (MLPA) is a PCR-based method to detect gene dosage. Since its introduction, MLPA has been used to test a large number of genes for major deletions or duplications. Genetic testing, as a diagnostic tool for genetic disease, has been used primarily to identify point mutations, including base substitutions and small insertions/deletions, using PCR and sequence analysis. However, it is difficult to identify large deletions or duplications using routine PCR- gel based assays, especially in heterozygotes. The MLPA is a more feasible method for identification of gene dosage than another routine PCR-based methods, and better able to detect deleterious deletions or duplications. In addition to detection of gene dosage, MLPA can be applied to identify methylation patterns of target genes, aneuploidy during prenatal diagnoses, and large deletions or duplications that may be associated with various cancers. The MLPA method offers numerous advantages, as it requires only a small amount of template DNA, is applicable to a wide variety of applications, and is high-throughput. On the other hand, this method suffers from disadvantages including the possibility of false positive results affected by template DNA quality, difficulties identifying SNPs located in probe sequences, and analytical complications in quantitative aspects.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.254-282
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• 1977

To obtain information on the inheritance of the quantitative characters related with the vegetative and reproductive growth of rice, the $F_1$ seeds were obtained in 1974 from the all possible combinations of the diallel crosses among five leading rice varieties : Nongbaek, Tongil, Palgueng, Mangyeong and Gimmaze. The $F_1$'s including reciprocals and parents were grown under the standard cultivation method at Chungnam Provincial Office of Rural Development in 1975. The arrangement of experimental plots was randomized block design with 3 replications and 12 characters were used for the analysis. Analytical procedure for genetic components was followed the Griffing's and Hayman's methods and the results obtained are summarized as follows. 1. In all $F_1$'s of Tongil crosses, the longer duration to heading was due to dominant effect of Tongil and each $F_1$ showed high heterosis in delaying the heading time. It was assumed that non-allelic gene action besides dominant gene effect might be involed in days to heading character. However, in all $F_1$'s from the crosses among parents excluding Tongil the shorter duration was due to dominant gene action and the degree of dominance was partial, since dominance effects were not greater than the additive effect. The non-allelic gene interaction was not significant. Considering the results mentioned above, it was regarded that there were two kinds of Significantly different genetic systems in the days to heading. 2. The rate of heterosis was significantly different depending upon the parents used in the crosses. For instance, the $F_1$'s from Togil cross showed high rate of heterosis in longer culm. Compared to short culm, longer culm was due to recesive gene action and short culm was due to recesive gene action. The dominant gene effect was greater than the additive gene effect in culm length. The narrow sense of heretability was very low and the maternal effects as well as reciprocal effects were significantly recognized. 3. The lenght of the of the uppermost internode of each $F_1$ plant was a little lorger than these of respective parental means or same as those of parents having long internodes, indicating partial dominance in the direction of lengthening the uppermost internodes. The additive gene effects on the uppermost internode was greater than the dominance gene effect. The narrow as well as broad sense of heritabilities for the character of the uppermost internode were very high. There were significant maternal and reciprocal effect in the uppermost internode. 4. The gene action for the flag leaf angle was rather dominance in a way of getting narrower angle. However, in the Palgueng combinations, heterosis of $F_1$ was observed in both narrow and wide angles of the flag leaf. The dominant effects were greater than the additive effects on the flag leaf angle. There were observed also a great deal of non-allelic gene interacticn on the inheritance of the flag leaf angle. 5. Even though the dominant gene action on the length and width of flag leaf was effective in increasing the length or width of the flag leaf, there were found various degrees of hetercsis depending upon the cross combination. Over-dominant gene effect were observed in the inheritance of length of the flag leaf, while additive gene effects was found in the inheritance of the width of the flag leaf. High degree of heretabilities, either narrow or broad sense, were found in both length and width of the flag leaf. No maternal and reciprocal effect were found in both characters. 6. When Tongil was used as one parent in the cross, the length of panicle of $F_1$'s was remarkedly longer than that of parents. In other cross comination, the length of panicle of $F_1$'s was close to the parental mean values. Rather greater dominent gene effect than additive gene effect was observed in the inheritance of panicle length and the dominant gene was effective in increasing the panicle length. 7. The effect of dominant genes was effective in increasing the number of panicles. The degree of heterosis was largely dependent on the cross combination. The effect of dominant gene in the inheritance of panicle number was a little greater than that of additive genes, and the inheritance of panicle number was assumed to be due to complete dominant gene effects. Significantly high maternal and reciprocal effects were found in the character studied. 8. There were minus and plus values of heterosis in the kernel number per panicle depending upon the cross combination. The mean dominant effect was effective in increasing the kernel number per panicle, the degree of dominant effect varied with cross combination. The dominant gene effect and non-allelic gene interaction were found in the inheritance of the kernel number per panicle. 9. Genetic studies were impossible for the maturing ratio, because of environmental effects such as hazards delaying heads. The dominant gene effect was responsible for improving the maturing ratio in all the cross combinations excluding Tongil 10. The heavier 1000 grain weight was due to dominant gene effects. The additive gene effects were greater than the dominant gene effect in the 1000 grain weight, indicating that partial dominance was responsible for increasing the 1000 grain weight. The heritabilites, either narrow or broad sense of, were high for the grain weight and maternal or reciprocal effects were not recognized. 11. When Tongil was used as parent, the straw weight was showing high heterosis in the direction of increasing the weight. But in other crosses, the straw weight of $F_1$'s was lower than those of parental mean values. The direction of dominant gene effect was plus or minus depending upon the cross combinations. The degree of dominance was also depending on the cross combination, and apparently high nonallelic gene interaction was observed.