Australian Birdkeeper – June-July 2018

with Turquoise, of Yellam Turquoise. Thus

far, we have kept the genetic symbol ‘ya’.

Eventually, if this mutation proves to be

an allele of Dilute or another gene, we will

naturally adapt this symbol.

The mode of inheritance of Yellam is

autosomal recessive. With pairings, this

results in the following options:

Green x Yellam Green:

100% Green/Yellam.

Green/Yellam x Green:

50% chance of Green,

50% chance of Green/Yellam.

Green/Yellam x Green/Yellam:

25% chance of Green,

50% chance of Green/Yellam,

25% chance of Yellam Green.

I want to note here that the

homozygote Green youngsters are in

principle not visually distinguishable

from the split youngsters.

Green/Yellam x Yellam Green:

50% chance of Green/Yellam,

50% chance of Yellam Green.

Yellam Green x Yellam Green:

100% Yellam Green.

Good luck with your Yellams!

that proved not to be the case. So we could

exclude Pastel, as well as all the other

mutations from the NSL Ino locus. In other

words, it was also not a Dark-eyed Clear

(dec), or what breeders sometimes used to

call Black-eyed Yellow.

Meanwhile, at our request, a lot of

test matings were carried out by 11

breeders worldwide and registered

with us. Not one of these outcomes

showed connection to other mutations.

Meanwhile, names like Dilute, Suffused

and Pastel continued to circulate. We

advised to use the name *US Yellow*,

placed between asterisks to indicate that

this was not yet a defi nite name, until we

had more information about the mutation.

However, there was a lot of confusion.

Meanwhile, at MUTAVI Research and

Advice Group, a lot of feathers from these

birds were being examined. We didn’t just

examine feathers from birds coming from

European collections, but also from the

United States, to ensure we had the right

feathers available. But even this research

was unable to clarify the mutation.

MAYBE A ‘DILUTE’?

An option we also had in our minds from

the outset was that this mutation could

be a form of Dilute. With Dilute, we have

a mutation from the Myosine Va locus^4

(p.171, 5). whereby the formed eumelanin

is damaged during transportation of

the pigments in the feather. This results

in typical macromelanosomes in the

feathers (large clumping of the existing

eumelanin). Unfortunately, only a small

macromelanosome was found in one single

feather by research co-ordinator Inte

Onsman. Naturally, one bird doesn’t bring

spring time, and it has not yet been proven

that we are dealing with a form of Dilute.

If that really is the case, it will probably

be an extreme, still unknown, allele of this

gene. The only way to test this correctly

is when a typical Dilute mutation occurs

in Forpus coelestis, and is paired with this

mutation. If we get an intermediate form,

we will have the proof we need.

Meanwhile, we compared the eumelanin

of this mutation with different kinds of

other mutations. Unfortunately, we never

found a match. As a result, we had to search

through other channels and numerous

researchers were asked their opinions.

Unfortunately not a single match was

found with any other existing mutation.

The cautious conclusion would be that it is

probably a not-yet-described mutation.

FINAL NAMING?

With the push still on from aviculturists

for a suitable name, we considered a few

appropriate possibilities. According to the

rules, the name for a mutation is preferably

in English or a unique term. Besides a

number of suggestions from the existing

list of possible English names, I also

tinkered a little with the syllables of the

original name American Yellow. ‘Amyel’

was an existing name, so I decided on the

name ‘Yellam’. Although this term has no

meaning in English, it nonetheless refers

to the original name. The naming options

were presented to a number of breeders,

hobbyists and judges and they all preferred

the name ‘Yellam’.

Naturally, we always respect these

choices, and thus we proposed ‘Yellam’

for this mutation. In the green series we

thus speak about Yellam Green, in the

blue series of Yellam Blue and, combined

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REFERENCES

1. Balaban, G 1997, ‘Breeding yellow mutation parrotlets’,
   Bird Breeders Magazine.


2. Van den Abeele, D 2016, Lovebirds Compendium, 1st edn.,
   Warffum, The Netherlands: About Pets.


3. Van den Abeele, D 2015, Erfelijkheid bij vogels, 1st edn., Welzo Media.


4. Lamoureux, LM, Delmas, V, Larue, L, Bennett, en D 2010, The
   Colours of Mice: A Model Genetic Network, 1st edn., London:
   Wiley-Blackwell.


5. Bridgman, PC 1999, ‘Myosin Va movements in normal and dilute-
   lethal axons provide support for a dual fi lament motor complex’,
   Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 146, no. 5, pp. 1045–1060.

a.