Peafowl Genetics 305: Propagating New Novel Mutations
A "de novo" mutation is a new mutation that creates a novel gene. This means it is NOT a combination of genes that already exist, but rather a new gene never seen before in peafowl. Examples of genes like this would be bronze, opal, cameo, purple, etc, rather than combination morphs like indigo, platinum, mocha, etc. The exception being (as usual) "peach" as it is kind of new and kind of not new due to the way it works. Ignore peach.
With that in mind, let's say a new morph pops up in your birds- a peafowl colored in a way you didn't expect, and it doesn't match the parent birds, and it doesn't match a known color morph already acknowledged. What do you do?
With that in mind, let's say a new morph pops up in your birds- a peafowl colored in a way you didn't expect, and it doesn't match the parent birds, and it doesn't match a known color morph already acknowledged. What do you do?
Step One: Keep or Sell?
You have two options right off the bat- you can either start doing genetic testing and propagation, or you can sell the bird to someone that will do genetic testing and propagation.
The second option is faster and easier. If you don't know much about genetics and don't feel like learning, you can make a quick buck (or a lot of quick bucks, depending on how pretty the new mutation is!) by selling it off to the highest bidder. In this case, you should ask around first- post to groups, post to forums- make sure that it's actually not something you just haven't seen before. This gives the side benefit of making people aware you have the mutation. From there, contact one of the bigger breeders- folks like Bill Vinduska at Spring Creek Peafowl, or Brad Legg of Legg's Peafowl. Be aware that a bigger breeder is likely going to propagate the mutation, and it's through their hands that people will get the color; some breeders will NOT keep your name for the mutation, so if that's important to you, then do the breeding yourself at first. They are also going to make a LOT of money if the morph is colorful/beautiful (rather than plain brown or very close to another plain brown color), so when you're looking at selling, ask for what the bird is worth. You can ask for opinions on pricing from groups and forums before actually listing it. The first Ultramarines in the US went for $6,800 each. The first European Violets in the US only went for about $2,500 each. Typically, you can expect new morphs to run around $2k/pair for the first couple of years.
Which brings me to the second point- keeping them and breeding them yourself. You might ask yourself why someone would ever sell off a new mutation instead of keeping it to breed, because that $2k/pair price tag may look tempting, but understand that a LOT of work may go into testing and propagation, and the entire time you're the sole keeper of the mutation, you are one disaster, one predator attack, one parasite infestation, one random illness away from that mutation being wiped off the face of the planet, maybe forever. That's a lot of responsibility. It's also costly. If you don't have enough pens to keep them and their offspring separate, you may have to sink money into expanding. You are going to be caring for those birds and their offspring for at least 3 years, more like 6+. The initial mutant will take 2+ years to mature to breeding age, and anything could happen in that time. The parent birds may or may not produce more of them in that time, depending on if the gene mutated in the parent bird and the offspring inherited it, or if the gene mutated in the offspring during development.
So, consider carefully if you want to go through all of that or not. Sometimes it's worth it! If you want to leave your mark upon the peafowl world, even after you're gone, a mutation originating from your farm is one of the best ways to do that. The morph will bear the name you give it in perpetuity (though usually two-word names like "buford bronze" drop off the name part to just "bronze" so remember that when naming things). But if you DO decide you want to propagate, there are a number of steps you should take to do so responsibly.
The second option is faster and easier. If you don't know much about genetics and don't feel like learning, you can make a quick buck (or a lot of quick bucks, depending on how pretty the new mutation is!) by selling it off to the highest bidder. In this case, you should ask around first- post to groups, post to forums- make sure that it's actually not something you just haven't seen before. This gives the side benefit of making people aware you have the mutation. From there, contact one of the bigger breeders- folks like Bill Vinduska at Spring Creek Peafowl, or Brad Legg of Legg's Peafowl. Be aware that a bigger breeder is likely going to propagate the mutation, and it's through their hands that people will get the color; some breeders will NOT keep your name for the mutation, so if that's important to you, then do the breeding yourself at first. They are also going to make a LOT of money if the morph is colorful/beautiful (rather than plain brown or very close to another plain brown color), so when you're looking at selling, ask for what the bird is worth. You can ask for opinions on pricing from groups and forums before actually listing it. The first Ultramarines in the US went for $6,800 each. The first European Violets in the US only went for about $2,500 each. Typically, you can expect new morphs to run around $2k/pair for the first couple of years.
Which brings me to the second point- keeping them and breeding them yourself. You might ask yourself why someone would ever sell off a new mutation instead of keeping it to breed, because that $2k/pair price tag may look tempting, but understand that a LOT of work may go into testing and propagation, and the entire time you're the sole keeper of the mutation, you are one disaster, one predator attack, one parasite infestation, one random illness away from that mutation being wiped off the face of the planet, maybe forever. That's a lot of responsibility. It's also costly. If you don't have enough pens to keep them and their offspring separate, you may have to sink money into expanding. You are going to be caring for those birds and their offspring for at least 3 years, more like 6+. The initial mutant will take 2+ years to mature to breeding age, and anything could happen in that time. The parent birds may or may not produce more of them in that time, depending on if the gene mutated in the parent bird and the offspring inherited it, or if the gene mutated in the offspring during development.
So, consider carefully if you want to go through all of that or not. Sometimes it's worth it! If you want to leave your mark upon the peafowl world, even after you're gone, a mutation originating from your farm is one of the best ways to do that. The morph will bear the name you give it in perpetuity (though usually two-word names like "buford bronze" drop off the name part to just "bronze" so remember that when naming things). But if you DO decide you want to propagate, there are a number of steps you should take to do so responsibly.
Step 2: Proving Out the Genes
If you've decided to keep the mutation, the first step in founding new mutations is ensuring it IS a new gene, and not just a new morph from old genes. New morphs from old genes are fine, but anyone can make these (and you can learn how here!) because the materials are already there. So you first want to prove that the gene isn't a combination, by seeing if the parents repeat the outcome and nothing else. Since you can do this while you wait, it's easy enough, and even if your goal is to straight up make more of the mutation with no care for what's in it, this would be the next step. Leave the parents together, let them produce more, and look to see if they produce any other colors.
Chances are GOOD that if both parents are split to multiple matching mutations (ie, both split to the same colors), you would see a new mutation, but you would ALSO see them produce offspring in those base mutations. For example, if both blue parents are split opal and split midnight, they would produce blue, opal, midnight, and a "new" color. From that, you could infer that your new mutation is just a combination of the other colors produced by the parents. Let's see what that looks like.
Chances are GOOD that if both parents are split to multiple matching mutations (ie, both split to the same colors), you would see a new mutation, but you would ALSO see them produce offspring in those base mutations. For example, if both blue parents are split opal and split midnight, they would produce blue, opal, midnight, and a "new" color. From that, you could infer that your new mutation is just a combination of the other colors produced by the parents. Let's see what that looks like.
So let's say you got the pink bird, but the parents also produced blues, opals, and midnights. It's a reasonable guess that the "new" color is a new MORPH, but not a new MUTATION. It is a polygenic morph made from midnight and opal co-expressing.
If the parents are ONLY producing the new mutation and blues, there's a higher chance that they're carrying the new gene- but unless it's sex-linked, that would be pretty weird, as both parents would have to have the mutation to produce autosomal mutants. Let's make up a new mutation, Pearl (pr), and look at both of these scenarios.
First, if you are getting only blues and pearls, and ONLY hen pearls, then your parent genes probably look like this:
If the parents are ONLY producing the new mutation and blues, there's a higher chance that they're carrying the new gene- but unless it's sex-linked, that would be pretty weird, as both parents would have to have the mutation to produce autosomal mutants. Let's make up a new mutation, Pearl (pr), and look at both of these scenarios.
First, if you are getting only blues and pearls, and ONLY hen pearls, then your parent genes probably look like this:
If this is the spread of offspring you have, AND you have multiple mutant hens coming from this pairing, then chances are good your male is carrying a new sex-linked gene. However, if this is the spread, but you only get ONE mutant hen, chances are better neither parent is carrying anything, and the gene mutated in the hen during development (as opposed to mutating in her father during his development or in her grandparents' germ cells).
However, if the gene is autosomal and recessive, and you are getting blues and a new color, then your parent genes probably look like this instead:
However, if the gene is autosomal and recessive, and you are getting blues and a new color, then your parent genes probably look like this instead:
This may LOOK like the same spread of offspring, but if you look under the surface at the actual genes, several things are going on. Only 25% of the offspring here would look Pearl, but 50% of the offspring would also carry the gene. There's no way to differentiate between wild types and heterozygous birds if the new gene is recessive, though. The main way you would tell is if you get a MALE of the new color- as you can see in the previous table, that won't happen unless the hen is also the new color.
The chances of getting a new mutation like this latter example, in a penned setting, is very, very slim. BOTH parents have to have the SAME mutant gene, and the odds of this randomly happening, especially in completely unrelated or distantly related birds that are being specifically paired by a breeder is... very low. Take the 1 in a million chance of a new mutation happening at all, and multiply that by 2 (once for each parent), and then multiply THAT by the chance of the same breeder ending up with both birds and pairing them. It's unlikely. BUT, what does happen is feral flocks will have a mutation occur in one bird, who will have offspring that are carriers, and then those offspring will breed with their parent or each other, and produce visually mutant offspring. If you have a feral flock, this may be the sort of new mutation you would see- this is how we got the gene for Montana!
You may be wondering how the parent bird gets the mutation in the first place. What generally happens in germline mutations is that the true progenitor of the mutation doesn't actually HAVE the gene. What happens is that the gene mutates in ONE of their germ cells (sperm or egg), and that mutation is then given to the offspring that comes from that single, mutant germ cell. Sometimes it happens in multiple of their germ cells, and they may produce multiple of the new mutant.
The chances of getting a new mutation like this latter example, in a penned setting, is very, very slim. BOTH parents have to have the SAME mutant gene, and the odds of this randomly happening, especially in completely unrelated or distantly related birds that are being specifically paired by a breeder is... very low. Take the 1 in a million chance of a new mutation happening at all, and multiply that by 2 (once for each parent), and then multiply THAT by the chance of the same breeder ending up with both birds and pairing them. It's unlikely. BUT, what does happen is feral flocks will have a mutation occur in one bird, who will have offspring that are carriers, and then those offspring will breed with their parent or each other, and produce visually mutant offspring. If you have a feral flock, this may be the sort of new mutation you would see- this is how we got the gene for Montana!
You may be wondering how the parent bird gets the mutation in the first place. What generally happens in germline mutations is that the true progenitor of the mutation doesn't actually HAVE the gene. What happens is that the gene mutates in ONE of their germ cells (sperm or egg), and that mutation is then given to the offspring that comes from that single, mutant germ cell. Sometimes it happens in multiple of their germ cells, and they may produce multiple of the new mutant.
At this point, if the gene is a recessive mutation you won't actually see any birds change color, UNLESS that mutation is sex-linked and germ cell becomes a hen. This bird, carrying the new mutation like above, could become the parent to mutant offspring. Again, though, this random mutant bird that looks like a plain blue like every other plain blue bird would have to breed, produce heterozygous offspring, and then those offspring (again, plain blues!! none of these birds would LOOK like mutants) would have to be bred back to their heterozygous parent or a heterozygous offspring in order to produce a bird that looks mutated.
The next situation is one we haven't really documented broadly in peafowl, and that's a dominant gene. In this case, it won't ever exist in the parents first without you knowing, because if it exists, then it shows in the phenotype. This will resemble the above, but with a higher prevalence of mutant offspring from the pink bird.
The next situation is one we haven't really documented broadly in peafowl, and that's a dominant gene. In this case, it won't ever exist in the parents first without you knowing, because if it exists, then it shows in the phenotype. This will resemble the above, but with a higher prevalence of mutant offspring from the pink bird.
This table looks a LOT like the previous table, but if you notice, the "PR" is capitalized. That is because in this situation, our fake gene "pearl" is dominant, and shows even if there's only 1 copy. This bird would produce more pearls (male and female!) regardless of what other bird it's bred to.
The next situation I want to talk about is peach (we're ignoring peach, because this shouldn't happen and it's REALLY weird that it did), where a case of chromosomal crossover moves genes from one chromosome to another during meiosis. During meiosis, chromosomes pair up and trade little bits of DNA, which means that the chromosomes an offspring inherits from Parent A isn't QUITE identical to Parent A's actual chromosomes, because it contains some of Parent B's genes. To help you visualize it, here's an example from Wikipedia:
The next situation I want to talk about is peach (we're ignoring peach, because this shouldn't happen and it's REALLY weird that it did), where a case of chromosomal crossover moves genes from one chromosome to another during meiosis. During meiosis, chromosomes pair up and trade little bits of DNA, which means that the chromosomes an offspring inherits from Parent A isn't QUITE identical to Parent A's actual chromosomes, because it contains some of Parent B's genes. To help you visualize it, here's an example from Wikipedia:
By Abbyprovenzano - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26261468
It is suspected that this is what happened with Peach- either the cameo or the purple gene locus was juuuust over the cutoff point, and got traded to the opposite chromosome to land on a Z chromosome that already had cameo on it. This is, I cannot stress enough, incredibly rare. It is also possible that cameo or purple are a plain melanin dilute and and just mutated the same way again. We see this in some other animals- chocolate is a melanin dilute that occurs often in mice, and sometimes can pop up in lines that don't carry chocolate. It's the same gene, and it mutated the same way, just new. We can't prove which way it happened with cameo and purple, but given that it happened once, I must mention it here as a possible route of new morphs. This one is... trickier to prove out. Since the mutations are on the same chromosome, they won't be able to be separated, so the only way you would know it's not a de novo mutation is if you bred it to a component color.
The last situation I want to talk about also isn't really documented in peafowl yet, and that's somatic mutation and mosaicism. Somatic mutations are mutations that don't affect the germ line (reproduction cells) and cannot be inherited because the genetic code for them isn't in the gametes. This kind of thing in other animals results in a "one-off" unique individual that looks different from other animals of the same species, but that don't make more of themselves when bred. Species popularly bred for pets sometimes have a word for this kind of mutation; my favorite is ball python breeders using the term "dinker" for unproven morphs (that usually don't prove to be genetic).
I actually have one of these on my farm; if you look at the top banner of the main genetics page, that image is of my male, Gemini's shoulders and saddle. He is blackshoulder on one side, and barred wing on the other. This is likely a case of chimerism of some sort, and not something that will affect his children (though may affect his ability to reproduce!). If you breed the parents and don't get any more mutations, and you breed the offspring and don't get any more mutations, chances are good you've got a unique individual on your hands as the result of somatic mutation.
I actually have one of these on my farm; if you look at the top banner of the main genetics page, that image is of my male, Gemini's shoulders and saddle. He is blackshoulder on one side, and barred wing on the other. This is likely a case of chimerism of some sort, and not something that will affect his children (though may affect his ability to reproduce!). If you breed the parents and don't get any more mutations, and you breed the offspring and don't get any more mutations, chances are good you've got a unique individual on your hands as the result of somatic mutation.
Step 2: Propagation
Once the initial mutant bird reaches maturity, you will have to decide who to pair it to. If it's a hen, it's best to pair back to her father, as there's a 50-50 chance that the mutation is sex-linked and he's carrying a copy. If you pair the daughter back, you will get blues (he is not carrying the mutation) or you will get males and females of the new color (he IS carrying the mutation).
If it's a male, however, you would be better off pairing him over plain blue hens, if you can find blue hens with no known hets. This is because you can create more birds faster pairing a mutant male over multiple hens than you could pairing him to just his mother, or just one mutant hen to her father (or any other male), and because you can simultaneously test for any extra hets and produce offspring that are clean and carry only the new mutation. You always want a clean line first, so you can prove it's not a combo mutation.
If it's a male, however, you would be better off pairing him over plain blue hens, if you can find blue hens with no known hets. This is because you can create more birds faster pairing a mutant male over multiple hens than you could pairing him to just his mother, or just one mutant hen to her father (or any other male), and because you can simultaneously test for any extra hets and produce offspring that are clean and carry only the new mutation. You always want a clean line first, so you can prove it's not a combo mutation.