Variability of Blood Serum Proteins in the Japanese Quail (Coturnix Coturnix Japonica) Breeds and Hybrids

Abstract

An electrophoretic analysis of blood serum proteins was carried out to determine the genetic variability used as a primary genetic estimation of the Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) stock maintained at the Institute of Ecology, Vilnius, Lithuania. The study was performed on quail breeds carrying mutations: motley (wild type), white and extended brown. Common protein was also studied for a hybrid population, obtained from random crossing between white and brown quail. In all samples, out of ten loci analysed, five loci (Mc., PostTf, PostAl, Al, PreAl-3) were polymorphic. The mean number of alleles per locus is 1.50, for all strains. The mean values of the observed (H_o) heterozygosity for all breeds varied within the limits of 0.173 ~ 0.219 and were lower than the expected heterozygosity (H_ex). 0.227 ~ 0.244. The highest values of H_o (0.237) and H_ex (0.248) were detected for hybrids. The highest deficit (D_het.≈-0.6) was detected in PreAl-3 for white quail and hybrids and in PostAl for motley quail. In brown quail, a high heterozygote deficit (Dhet.≈-0.4) was observed in three loci (Mc, PostTf, and Al). For motley and brown quail, the heterozygote excess was not detected in any locus, but for hybrids it was found at least in three loci (Mc, PostAl, and Al). The heterozygote excess was also detected in two loci (Mc and PostAl) of white quail.

The phylogenic analysis was carried out according to M. Nei's (1972) and S. Wright's (1978) calculations of genetic similarity (I) and distance (D). Following Nei's calculations, the highest genetic identity (0.992) was established between motley quail and hybrids; the highest genetic distance (0.026) was detected between white and motley quail. The similar trend in genetic distance between breeds was also observed after using Wright's modification.