Genetic Basis of Auditory Pathology in the Belgian Waterslager Canary

Canaries have been bred for several hundred years for song quality or plumage and it ispossible that other phenotypic traits may have also been changed as a result of this artificial selection. For example, it has long been known that Belgian Waterslager (BW) canaries have damaged and missing hair cells in the apical end of the basilar papilla resulting in poor high frequency hearing. Tests on cross-bred and back-crossed birds indicates a factor linked to the Z chromosome is responsible for this pathology. We sought to investigate further the genetic basis for this frequency hearing loss in BW canaries by characterizing the putative Z chromosome factor causing an auditory pathology. We conducted whole-genome Illumina sequencing in three canary strains: Border (male, n=5), American Singer (male, n=5), and BW (male=3, female=2).