At the American Society for Cell Biology's 2006 conference, scientists will describe their latest research on patterning, on the molecular and systems level. The scientists looked at how feather ...

Birds show an amazing diversity in plumage color and patterning. But what are the genetic mechanisms creating such patterns? Researchers now report that two independent mutations are required to ...

Estrogen derived from the ovaries transforms the default (primitive) male-type feathers into female-type feathers by regulating the hormone systems within the feather follicles. Birds possess unique ...

In sharp-tailed grouse (Pedioecetes phasianellus) and prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) the pattern of crown feathers varies according to sex. Crown feathers of males are dark with a buff-colored ...

ONLY very recently was I able to read Nickerson's paper1 on barred pattern formation in chicken feathers. Nickerson's experimental analysis by means of melanophore transplantation according to H. B.

In a new study, researchers inhibited a gene during embryonic development to make chicken feathers more primitive, like the kind of simple tube-shaped proto-feathers that likely first emerged in the ...

A regular-sized chicken has at least 10,000 feathers. With Americans eating 8 billion chickens annually, the feather supply is endless. Unlike geese, chickens don’t produce the type of down needed to ...