With a Z and a W: How Genes Make Up Birds

If you breed birds, the subject of basic genetics immediately becomes relevant, yet many fanciers shy away from the subject. Here PAUL DONOVAN discusses the bird basics and explains what’s a chromosome, what’s a gene, what is DNA – and most importantly, why it all matters in our hobby

- Paul Donovan

THERE’S only one thing that you can say about genetics and that is: “It is a mystifying sphere of science, which controls the way every living thing looks like and functions.” While far from being a geneticist, in my next two articles I thought I’d try and unravel this subject in a lay person’s terms and see how it affects birds.

Genes influence every aspect of a bird’s characteristics; from what it eats, what it looks like and whether it flies or not, to feather coloration, the type of nest it builds, egg colour, etc. Qualities that constitute its make-up will be inherited from both the male and female as they are passed down through the bloodline. But what are the elements that contribute to all these factors?

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a double helix-shaped strand of coded material. It contains all the instructions that determine the structure and functions of every cell, as well as being responsible for passing on characteristics from parents to sibling.

A gene is a segment of DNA, which carries the blueprint to control a cell’s physical characteristics, growth and development. It is ultimately responsible for a particular characteristic of an organism. Most genes are located on the same type of chromosome, so each cell has two copies of a gene; these can be identical or differ in certain respects.