Meeting Abstract

41.2  Wednesday, Jan. 5  Endless pigeons most beautiful and most wonderful MULROY, E.; RECORD, D.; GUERNSEY, M.; STRINGHAM, S.A.; ALDENHOVEN, J.T.; OSBORNE, E.J.; SHAPIRO, M.D.**; Univ. of Utah shapiro@biology.utah.edu

For thousands of years, humans have selected stunning morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits in the rock pigeon. This intensive selection regime has resulted in over 350 recognized modern breeds with unique combinations of derived traits, most of which are constructive (rather than regressive or loss traits). An intriguing question in pigeon domestication is, do breeds that share phenotypic similarities also share genetic ancestry, or do these breeds resemble each other due to convergent selection on similar traits in different lineages? To address this question, we determined the genetic structure of dozens of domestic pigeon breeds by genotyping hundreds of birds with polymorphic genomic markers. We found that many breeds were highly structured, while others were likely subjected to outcrossing, or had recent origins from hybridization events. Our genetic structure and phylogenetic analyses implicate repeated selection on most – but not all – derived traits in different lineages.