The Journal of Heredity 1989:80(4):268-271
© 1989 The American Genetic Association 80:268-271
research-article |
Heritable Susceptibility to Environmentally Induced Glaucoma in Several Mutants of Japanese Quail
Department of Zoology, University of Alberta Edmonton
Department of Animal Science, University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada
Address reprint requests to Dr. Lauber, Department of Zoology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
Abstract
We compared albino (al), dilute (al°), and wild-type (Al+) quail in their ocular responses to continuous light, the rearing condition that brings on light-induced avian glaucoma (LIAG) in domestic chickens. At age 3 months, all quail kept under 24L/OD showed the retarded comeal growth and comeal flattening characteristic of LIAG. Unlike chickens, quail did not suffer pathological eye enlargement during the early growing period. However, by 6 months of age, 24L/OD albinos showed an almost 20% increase in eye weight compared with 12L/12D albinos. The increase in eye weight for 24L/OD dilutes at 6 months of age was 18%; for 24L/OD wild types, it was 16%. Intraocular pressure, the key criterion for glaucoma, was almost twice as high at 6 months of age in 24L/OD wild types as It was In 12L/12D wild types and showed similar but even greater increases in dilutes and albinos reared under continuous light Acrossgenotype comparisons revealed additional effects of the mutant genes themselves: the eyes of albinos were 18.6% larger than those of wild types (both 12L), and under 24L, the eyes of albinos were 22.6% larger. The eyes of dilutes showed a similar but smaller response—15% and 6.6%, respectively, and correlated increases in globe dimensional parameters. The flat cornea characteristic of LIAG appeared in all three mutants, but only when environmental light had been kept at 24L/OD. This further separates the LIAG effect from the phenomenon we call albino quail macrophthaimos.