title: Sex-linked inheritance of hearing and song in the Belgian Waterslager canary.
abstract: Belgian Waterslager canaries have less sensitive hearing at high frequencies and produce songs with more energy at low frequencies than wild-type canaries. A backcross pedigree between Belgian Waterslager canaries and a domestic strain with wild-type song revealed inheritance patterns consistent with a factor of major effect located on the Z sex chromosome affecting both poor high-frequency hearing at 4 kHz and the relative energy in the spectra of the learned songs of males. Hearing thresholds at 4 kHz were significant predictors of the relative amount of song energy at 4 kHz for individual males. One hypothesis for the mechanistic basis of this correlation between hearing and song abnormalities is that a reduction in the ability to hear higher-frequency songs biases males towards learning lower-frequency songs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. twright@mvar.nmsu.edu
authors.forename: Timothy F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Elizabeth F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Brittan-Powell
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dooling
authors.forename: Paul C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Mundinger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001530:Belgium; D002171:Canaries / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D040582:Inheritance Patterns / Q000235:genetics*; D016014:Linear Models; D010375:Pedigree; D012730:Sex Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics*; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013637:Tape Recording; D014828:Vocalization, Animal