Revealing the secret of pigeon pecking by an Iranian female researcher
The Iranian female researcher found out the secret of pigeons' humming.
At least five genes have been identified in pigeons that play a role in some of these species.
According to Khabar Online, Atusa Samani started studying the genetics of pigeons from an early age. He grew up surrounded by domestic pigeons in the city of Isfahan. In a city that is famous for its pigeon houses. His favorite bird was a pure white dove.
At the age of six or seven, Atusa noticed that her favorite pigeon had never produced a completely white offspring, and gradually learned that white color is a recessive genetic trait that only occurs when an individual inherits two broken copies of the same gene. It appears. In this particular case, his favorite pigeon had two broken copies of the gene that normally forms the pigment in the feathers. As a result, the feathers of this pigeon were completely white.
But the chicks of this pigeon inherited a copy of a natural gene that produced pigment from their mother and had colored feathers.
This initial summary about the heredity of pigeons stuck in Atusa's mind and fueled her interest in learning more about genetics. When he went to study at the University of Utah, he joined Michael Shapiro's lab to investigate why some pigeons can backsalve.
Cooing pigeons
These pigeons that can pout include two types: one type is Flying rollers like Birmingham pigeons that are able to fly and pout in the sky and the other type is parlor rollers that are not able to fly but pout on the ground. .
In many Persian poems, it is mentioned that pigeons perform these acrobatic movements out of happiness; But Samani believes that the truth is darker than these words. He explained about this: “This is definitely a movement disorder and it does not have any good aspects.”
According to his explanation, this disorder is progressive and appears immediately after laying eggs and gradually worsens until the bird can no longer fly.
Discovery of related genes
In a report, Samani pointed out that at least five genes are involved in these behaviors. His colleagues have also confirmed that this humping is a recessive trait that is created by mating Homer pigeons with Parlor pigeons. When hybrid birds mate, about 4 out of 10 of their offspring will backstab when forced to fly.
Ms. Samani used two different statistical methods to find the genes that cause pigeons to peck. He found five large sections of DNA containing hundreds of genes, although none of these genes had mutations in those areas that could be the cause of this backlash. As a result, he went to the gene activity in the brain of birds and found that there are about two thousand genes that are more or less active in the brains of Parlor pigeons than the other two types of pigeons that do not hum.
By combining all these evidences, Samani focused his research on 300 genes that may lead to this backbiting, but he still could not link this work to a specific gene.
Samani will soon finish his doctorate and hopes to enter the teaching profession. He will miss the pigeons and the mental exercises they gave him.
Samani said: “I have been thinking about this for about five years. I collected puzzle pieces from around. Now how can I connect these pieces together to make sense? Will they finally get along? This is what I miss the most; I love solving puzzles.”
