Abnormal morphagenesis of feather structure and pattern in the chick embryo integument. I. Macroscopic description.

The development of feathers in embryos from a profusely feathered line derived from a homozygous scaleless mutant stock was compared with that of embryos from a standard White Leghorn stock. The time of appearance of feather primordia, their structure and their arrangement all were altered in mutant embryos. Unit structures ranging in size from hillocks of 300 mu diameter (the size of normal primordia) to ridges 8 mm long were found in varying numbers in the different tracts of the mutant embryos. the hexagonal pattern characterizing feather primordia in normal embryos was disrupted in scaleless high line embryos. Differential growth and morphogenetic sculpting, as evidenced by the appearance of clefts, generate the form of and subdivide the variable shaped unit structures of the mutant as they elongate. Selection for high feather number was successful in dramatically increasing the total amount of feathering but the absence of coordinate controls of pattern and feather structure development led to the aberrant arrangement of tracts and of structures within the tracts. The basic pattern thus appears to have been destroyed by the scaleless mutation, and the alteration of the phenotype accomplished by selection has not apparently restored its control.