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Although the cultural and nutritive importance of the turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) to precontact Native Americans and contemporary people worldwide is clear, little is known about the domestication of this bird compared to other domesticates. Mitochondrial DNA analysis of 149 turkey bones and 29 coprolites from 38 archaeological sites (200 BC-AD 1800) reveals a unique domesticated breed in the precontact Southwestern United States. Phylogeographic analyses indicate that this domestic breed originated from outside the region, but rules out the South Mexican domesticturkey (Meleagris gallopavo gallopavo) as a progenitor. A strong genetic bottleneck within the Southwest turkeys also reflects intensive human selection and breeding. This study points to at least two occurrences of turkey domestication in precontact North America and illuminates the intensity and sophistication of New World animal breeding practices. Meleagris gallopavo | Southwest US | Ancestral Puebloans | Mesoamerica www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0909724107

Vertebrate long bones are formed by endochondral ossification, a process accompanied by changes in extracellular matrix synthesis and remodeling, performed mainly by the matrix metalloproteinases (MMP). The temporal/spatial expression patterns of 5 members of the MMP family known to be important for endochondral ossification were studied, for the first time, in the turkey growth plate during embryonic and juvenile stages. The expression of MMP-2 was detected in the proliferative zone, MMP-3, MMP-9, and MMP13 in cells lining the blood vessels; MMP-13 was also detected in hypertrophic chondrocytes. The MMP-16 expression was detected in the reserve zone of the growth plate. These results present a detailed survey of turkey MMP, serving as a data source (atlas) for further studies in this subject. Key words: endochondral ossification, growth-plate, matrix metalloproteinase, turkey

Abstract: Integration of turkey genetic maps and their associated markers is essential to increase marker density in support of map-based genetic studies. The objectives of this study were to integrate [...]

A new heritable mutation that inhibits the rate of feathering was found in turkey. It was observed to affect the number, size, and structure of feathers. The expression of the disorder varies as the birds grow, from almost complete absence of feathers to almost full feather covering. It was found that amino acid composition of feathers from the mutated birds was modified. Alanine, aspartate, glycine, isoleucine and tyrosine were significantly lower while leucine is higher.

A study was conducted to analyze the development and partial characterization of turkey genomic libraries enriched for CCT, TG and GAT simple sequence repeats. The primary library was created using standard techniques. It was then improved for each of the three simple sequence repeats by single-primer polymerase chain reaction. Results indicated that simple sequence repeats are abundant in the genomes of turkeys.

Allen L. Szalanski [1,3] Kevin E. Church [2] David W. Oates [2] Richard Bischof [2] Thomas O. Powers [1] ABSTRACT Genetic variation within and among wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, subspecies [...]

Blood samples from a captive flock of game-farm bred wild turkeys were subjected to random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis in order to ascertain the degree of general heterozygosity present. [...]