Meeting Abstract
95.5 Thursday, Jan. 7 The origin of pigeons by means of artificial selection MULROY, E.; ALDENHOVEN, J.; OSBORNE, E.J.; STRINGHAM, S.; SHAPIRO, M.D.*; Univ. of Utah; Univ. of Utah; Univ. of Utah; Univ. of Utah; Univ. of Utah shapiro@biology.utah.edu
Darwin relied heavily on the dramatic results of artificial selection in domesticated pigeons to both conceive and communicate his theory of natural selection in wild populations and species. He noted that based on morphology alone, a taxonomist might be tempted to classify distinctive pigeon breeds not just as different species, but rather as completely different genera. Importantly, he also observed that all domesticated pigeons, no matter how morphologically or behaviorally divergent, could be interbred to produce viable offspring. He thus concluded that all breeds were simply variants descended from a single species, the wild rock pigeon (Columba livia). Thousands of years of artificial selection on the rock pigeon has produced over 350 recognized breeds with intriguing combinations of derived morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits. A major unanswered question in pigeon domestication is, do similar derived traits in different breeds result from common ancestry, or were similar traits selected multiple times in different lineages? We used molecular markers to examine genetic structure within and among breeds, and to generate a phylogeny of pigeon breeds. We found that many groups of breeds were highly structured, indicating high breeding fidelity, while others likely subjected to frequent outcrossing. Our molecular phylogeny contrasts with the morphological phylogeny proposed by Darwin in Animals and Plants Under Domestication and reveals repeated selection on similar skeletal and soft tissue traits in different lineages. Many of the traits under intense selection in domesticated pigeons have evolutionary and ecological relevance in other species of the pigeon family and birds in general. Thus, the domesticated pigeon is a potentially ideal – yet grossly underutilized – model of avian and vertebrate diversity.
