In other species: Mallard , Coscoroba swan , black swan , rock pigeon , helmeted guineafowl , chicken , king penguin , Arctic skua , pomarine skua , barn owl , brown booby , red-footed booby , zebra finch , Lesser snow goose , Bananaquit , gyrfalcon , ruff , Oriental honey-buzzard , Eleonora's falcon

Categories: Pigmentation phene

Links to possible relevant human trait(s) and/or gene(s) in OMIM: 266300 (trait) , 155555 (gene)

Mendelian trait/disorder: yes

Mode of inheritance: Autosomal

Disease-related: no

Key variant known: yes

Year key variant first reported: 2009

Species-specific description: Campagna et al. (2022): "Chestnut-bellied Monarchs (Monarcha castaneiventris ugiensis) from two archipelagos in the Solomon Islands have evolved entirely black plumage from a chestnut ancestor (Monarcha castaneiventris megarhynchus), a phenomenon known as island melanism. We obtain and analyze whole genome sequences using traditional summary statistics and new methods that combine inference of the ancestral recombination graph with machine learning. We find multiple lines of evidence for independent selective sweeps on the MC1R and ASIP genes, a receptor/ligand pair which regulates the production of melanin. Melanism on each archipelago is mediated by mutations in one of these two genes." See also OMIA:001602-338458 : Feather colour, yellow in Monarcha castaneiventris

Molecular basis: Campagna et al. (2022) confirm findings from their earlier studies, suggesting that a MC1R Asp119Asn variant is the likely causal variant for entirely black plumage in birds from the islands of Santa Ana and Santa Catalina.

Associated gene: