The Cys83Gly amino acid substitution in feather keratin is associated with pigeon performance in long-distance races

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the association of the g.710T>G polymorphism in the keratin gene, which results in a cysteine to glycine amino acid change at position 83 (Cys83Gly) in feather keratin, with homing pigeon racing performance. A total of 123 homing pigeons were investigated. The data set used in this study consisted of scores from 17 short races (less than 400 km) and 11 long races (greater than 500 km) that took place in the 2011 and 2012 racing seasons (2589 race records in total). The genotyping of the g.710T>G polymorphism was performed using the artificially created restriction site-PCR assay. The T allele and the TT genotype were prevalent with frequencies of 0.658 and 0.447, respectively. The TT pigeons had the highest mean of ace points in the long races and in all races overall, while the GT birds scored the best in the short races. Nevertheless, the effect of the polymorphism was significant only in the long races (P = 0.0451), in which the pigeons carrying the TT genotype showed better racing performance in comparison with those carrying the GG genotype (P ≤ 0.05). In order to explain this phenomenon, several bioinformatics tools were employed to check for the possible consequences of the Cys83Gly substitution for feather keratin. The cysteine at position 83 was indicated to form a disulphide bond, while the Cys83Gly substitution was predicted to disturb the stability of the protein. However, the predictions preformed using the different tools were not entirely consistent. Nevertheless, the loss of the cysteine at position 83 of pigeon feather keratin may affect the structure of feathers, thus changing their biomechanical characteristics, and consequently, may influence the flying ability of pigeons.

Development and Validation of KASP Assays for the Genotyping of Racing Performance-Associated Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Pigeons

“…With the growing popularity of pigeon racing as a lucrative sport, molecular approaches to the identification of genetic markers, such as SNPs, important to racing and homing phenotypes have been explored in the past [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 12 , 13 , 17 , 26 , 42 ]. The results of this study demonstrated the application of KASP as a method to detect SNPs previously identified to be associated with the racing traits of pigeons.…”

“…As in [ 42 ], the currently reported method may also potentially contribute to the advancement of our understanding of polymorphisms and their relationship with observable characteristics. As more potential genetic markers are being identified to be related to desirable traits among racing pigeons [ 2 , 10 , 12 , 17 , 42 ], and considering the advantages of KASP assays compared to PCR-RFLP in terms of cost, speed, and scalability as discussed above, this study may also serve as a basis for the further development of other KASP assays to detect other single nucleotide polymorphisms in pigeons, and even in other avian species. Lastly, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the use of KASP assays in any avian species.…”

“…Additionally, higher overall capacity in terms of endurance and recovery, or speed, velocity, and stress resistance are preferred traits [ 2 , 3 , 6 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Besides health management programs, including the appropriate choice of feeds, medical supplements, and physical conditioning regimens to improve pigeons’ performance in competitions, the identification of genetic markers for valuable traits associated with racing performance has also been reported and explored towards expediting success in selective breeding [ 1 , 6 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. The determination of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that seem to cause phenotypic differences is one of the most commonly used approaches to identify potentially essential genetic markers [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”

Association of Sequence Variants in the CKM (Creatine Kinase, M-Type) Gene with Racing Performance of Homing Pigeons

“…There are many factors affecting these traits [21], so searching for the appropriate genetic markers is crucial for this purpose. The most common types of markers in genomes are SNPs [22,23], and some of them have been used to predict racing performance in pigeons [20,21,[24][25][26].…”

Association of alpha-a globin gene polymorphism with its expression level in racing pigeons

“…There are many tools for selection, but the most common types of markers in genomes are SNPs [Goldstein andCavalleri 2005, Jacob et al 2018], nowadays, genetic markers have been used to predict racing perform-ance in pigeons [Proskura et al 2014, Proskura et al 2015, Proskura et al 2017, Ramadan et al 2018, Dybus et al 2018. Recently, in whole-genome study, the CASK gene was marked as an important genetic factor for fast flight, long endurance, and accurate navigation was revealed [Gazda et al 2018].…”