The genetic diversity of the Turkish native chicken breeds Denizli and Gerze was evaluated with 10 microsatellite markers. We genotyped a total of 125 individuals from five subpopulations. Among loci, the mean number of alleles was 7.5, expected heterozygosity (H e ) was 0.665, PIC value was 0.610, and Wright's fixation index was 0.301. H e was higher in the Denizli breed (0.656) than in the Gerze breed (0.475). The PIC values were 0.599 and 0.426 for Denizli and Gerze, respectively. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using genetic distance and the neighbor-joining method. Its topology reflects the general pattern of genetic differentiation among the Denizli and Gerze breeds. The present study suggests that Denizli and Gerze subpopulations have a rich genetic diversity. The information about Denizli and Gerze breeds estimated by microsatellite analysis may also be useful as an initial guide in defining objectives for designing future investigations of genetic variation and developing conservation strategies.

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Abstract. Effect of increasing zinc concentration in the diets of brown parent stock layers on various production and hatchability traits was investigated. After hatching, chicks were allocated to different treatment groups whose diets were formulated to contain graded concentrations 60 (control), 90, 120, 150, 180 and 210 mg zinc (Zn) kg−1 throughout 62 weeks. No effect of increasing zinc concentration on egg production, 5% egg production age, livability and hatchability rate was found (P > 0.05). On the other hand, significant differences were obtained with increase in zinc concentration in egg weight, feed conversion rate and hatchability effciency of the fertile eggs (P < 0.05). The results of the present study suggest that the diets of brown parent stock layers should include 180 mg Zn kg−1 for optimal performance and hatchability traits.

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Wingless-2 (wg-2) is an autosomal recessive mutation in chicken that results in an embryonic lethal condition. Affected individuals exhibit a multisystem syndrome characterized by absent wings, truncated legs, and craniofacial, kidney, and feather malformations. Previously, work focused on phenotype description, establishing the autosomal recessive pattern of Mendelian inheritance and placing the mutation on an inbred genetic background to create the congenic line UCD Wingless-2.331. The research described in this paper employed the complementary tools of breeding, genetics, and genomics to map the chromosomal location of the mutation and successively narrow the size of the region for analysis of the causative element. Specifically, the wg-2 mutation was initially mapped to a 7 Mb region of chromosome 12 using an Illumina 3 K SNP array. Subsequent SNP genotyping and exon sequencing combined with analysis from improved genome assemblies narrowed the region of interest to a maximum size of 227 kb. Within this region, 3 validated and 3 predicted candidate genes are found, and these are described. The wg-2 mutation is a valuable resource to contribute to an improved understanding of the developmental pathways involved in chicken and avian limb development as well as serving as a model for human development, as the resulting syndrome shares features with human congenital disorders.