In the avian world, the Roller Pigeons particularly stand out for their unique ability to perform aerial acrobatics. These birds are known to exhibit an unusual behavior – they do backward somersaults! And this isn’t limited to just mid-air antics. Some of these birds, known as Parlor Rollers, can’t fly but instead perform their tumbling acts on the ground.
There are many theories and folklore that attempt to explain this behavior. Some Persian poems even romanticize the notion, suggesting that the birds perform these acrobatics out of sheer joy. However, the truth appears to be less poetic and more scientific.
Researcher Atoosa Samani, who has spent a significant part of her life studying pigeon genetics, offers a different perspective. She points out that this is indeed a movement disorder and not an expression of happiness as often romanticized.
Samani’s research has revealed that the backflip behavior is recessive, meaning an individual pigeon needs to inherit two copies of the gene responsible for this trait to exhibit the behavior.
In a breeding experiment, when racing homer pigeons were crossbred with parlor rollers, none of the hybrid offspring displayed the rolling behavior. However, when these hybrid birds were bred among themselves, about 40% of the offspring exhibited the somersaulting behavior when forced to fly.
The quest to locate the genes responsible for this unique behavior led to the discovery of five large stretches of DNA containing hundreds of genes. However, none of these genes presented any mutations that could be linked to the tumbling behavior.
Further research into the gene activity in the brains of parlor rollers revealed nearly 2,000 genes that become either more or less active in comparison to non-rolling pigeon breeds.
Combining all these lines of evidence, Samani narrowed down the search to about 300 genes that could potentially lead to the rolling behavior. However, the precise genes responsible still remain elusive.
As Samani concludes her Ph.D. and looks forward to her future career, she leaves behind a fascinating mystery for other researchers to solve. The quest to unravel the genetic secrets of the roller pigeons continues.
Reference: sciencenews.org
