In other species: birds , ducks , Mallard , domestic goose , swan goose , Muscovy duck , mute swan , rock pigeon , guineafowls , chicken , Indian peafowl , Ring-necked pheasant , turkey , common canary , Great Tit , emperor penguin , carrion crow , Eurasian bullfinch , white wagtail , common cuckoo , barn owl , Oriental reed warbler , Malachite kingfisher , Japanese quail , tawny owl , red-backed fairy wren , hooded crow , white-winged fairy-wren , yellow-fronted tinkerbird , superb starling , golden-collared manakin , black sparrowhawk , South polar skua , White-collared manakin , red-fronted tinkerbird

Categories: Pigmentation phene

Mendelian trait/disorder: unknown

Disease-related: no

Species-specific description: Urban et al. (2024): "The kākāpō is an endangered and culturally significant parrot endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand, and the green and olive feather colorations are present at similar frequencies in the population. ... [The authors]   dissected the color phenotype, demonstrating that the two colors differ in their light reflectance patterns due to differential feather structure. [The authors] used quantitative genomics methods to identify two genetic variants whose epistatic interaction can fully explain the species’ color phenotype."

Markers: Urban et al. (2024): "the color polymorphism of every kākāpō individual can be explained by the genetic rule that olive individuals must carry at least 1 alternative T allele at Chr8_63055688 and at least 1 alternative G allele at Chr8_63098195 ... . ... The most likely gene to be involved in color polymorphism according to its known function is LHX8, which lies approximately 200 k nucleotides downstream of the indicator SNPs."