okay upon my studing with Genes and etc ... I have come across a thread that was of good reading , Now I am a very Gulable person and have always know that 2 yellows ca't make a blue ... However have we considered DAMAGED GENES ??????

 

I am posting the thread I read - could this be true that the gene responsible for the yellow pigment Can get damaged ????

 

Warning: the historical events, places and names of breeders in this post are incorrect, but it just seemed nicer to write it up like a (fictional) story in the hope that it will make stuff easier to digest.

 

Funny stuff those budgerigar colours. If you mix the genes that on the one hand produce a yellow bird and genes that on the other hand produce a blue bird you get a white one. Everybody who got its diploma from kindergarden knows that when you mix yellow and blue you get green - not white.

 

But of course what we call yellow isn't actually caused by a yellow gene but by a blue gene. And what we call blue is cause by a yellow gene. Confused? You should, but let me explain how genes and mutations work.

 

Take the normal light green budgerigar like those that fly freely over the Australian plains. Why is it green? Because it has yellow pigment and specially constructed feathers that reflect blue light. Back to kindergarden: yellow + blue = green. Are you still with me?

 

Now people took these nice budgerigars to Europe and started to breed with them. Now everyone is breeding light greens and no other colours are know.

 

As it just happened, somewhere in Scotland, at a breeder named Scott, something goes wrong with the passing on of the genes from the father to one his chicks: the gene responsible for the yellow pigment gets damaged. The yellow gene the chick gets from his mother still works so the chick now has one working and one not working yellow gene. Since the chick still has one yellow gene it is capable to produce yellow pigment and it just looks as green as its parent.

 

A few months pass and someone called Skye wants to start with budgerigar. He checks the adds section of the local paper and finds that Scott is selling some of his surplus budgerigars. He rings Scott and arranges to come over the next day.

 

Skye and Scott quickly argee on the price and Skye returns home with a pair of green budgerigars and some advise on how to breed. He doesn't know that the male he just bought is the chick with the one defective yellow gene.

 

One year later the breeding season had been good for Skye: he bred 14 chicks out of the pair. Unfortunatly mum died soon after the last bunch fledged. Skye sells his chicks, except for a nice, lively young hen.

 

As luck would have it this hen inherited the damaged yellow gene from her father, but of course a working yellow gene from her mother. So just like every other budgerigar known at the time she was green.

 

Quite some time earlier a monk called Mendel was very interrested in plants. After all that was the business his father was in. He did some experiments with crossing different types of peas. He concluded that a characteristic is determined by a gene pair and how these genes are inherited from parent to offspring. Off course he didn't call it a gene as that word wasn't invented yet. Funny that a clergeman put forward a method for traits to be passed on to the next generation as that would later prove to be an essential requirement in Darwins theory.

 

Back to the two budgerigars of Skye. The cock has a normal yellow gene and a damaged yellow gene. Lets just pick a symbol to represent these genes. I like the letters b and l. Lets call the normal, working yellow gene bl+. A plus because it's in fine working order and that always deservers a better mark. Which logically makes us represent the bad, damaged yellow gene without the plus sign.

 

bl+: normal, working yellow gene

bl: damaged yellow gene

 

Both dad and his nice, lively daugther have both types of the gene. So this new pair can be represented as:

 

DAD: bl+/bl

MUM: bl+/bl

 

The next breeding season start for Skye. He's unaware of the damaged yellow genes in his birds. Both dad and mum pass on either bl+ or bl to their young, so you can get these combinations in the chicks:

 

From dad: bl+

From mum: bl+

Chick #1: bl+/bl+

 

From dad: bl

From mum: bl+

Chick #2: bl/bl+

 

From dad: bl+

From mum: bl

Chick #3: bl+/bl

 

From dad: bl

From mum: bl

Chick #4: bl/bl

 

Chick #1 is just like all other green budgerigars as it has no damaged yellow genes. Chicks #2 and #3 are green because they have a working yellow gene but they also have a damaged yellow gene like their parents.

 

Chick #4 only has damaged yellow genes so it can't make yellow pigment. As a result the normally green budgerigar becomes blue!!! Skye can't believe his eyes. A lot of people come and see the blue bird and some offer fortunes for it.

 

I hope you can see now that 'blue' is actually minus yellow.

 

In the meantime, somewhere on the continent something similar happens with a blue gene that gets damaged. Breeder Bert breeds yellows because of this. A 'yellow' bird is actually a minus blue.

 

So knowing this, you can understand that a white bird is possible with both damaged genes. A normal green has both blue and yellow pigment. Now combining 'blue' and 'yellow' in one bird is actually: green minus yellow minus blue = blue + yellow minus yellow minus blue = no pigment. No pigment means white.

 

Website article is from http://www.schilduil.org/

Edited April 16, 200817 yr by Elly

interesting article some of it confusing lol but what I am seeing the "damaged" gene as the ino or lutino gene creating the same affect?

 

I have always thought it interesting that blue plays the main role in both yellow & white birds but blue is recessive to yellow & blue = GREEN

Edited April 16, 200817 yr by Elly

This guy is great he also says that there can be ALbinos / Yf ... How ever the above post is from another forum

 

 

And there is evidence of Double factor Yellow Face Which is awesome as it produces Normal white faces ... I have found his Genetics Site for Budgie breeders it is FANTASIC ..... as Case studies and More ...I need t make a cuppa i am in for a long night ....

 

CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE

 

Enjoy

Edited April 16, 200817 yr by Neat

This guy is great he also says that there can be ALbinos / Yf ... How ever the above post is from another forum

 

 

And there is evidence of Double factor Yellow Face Which is awesome as it produces Normal white faces ... I have found his Genetics Site for Budgie breeders it is FANTASIC ..... as Case studies and More ...I need t make a cuppa i am in for a long night ....

 

CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE

 

Enjoy

 

Your funny Neat ....we just had this discussion http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....showtopic=18994 a lot of what you are finding so cool...keep reading and you will learn even more .