Triploidy and haploid-triploid mosaicism among chick embryos (Gallus domesticus).

Homomorphic, chromosomally abnormal roosters were mated to normal hens. The 23 hens produced 67 embryos, including two triploids and a haploid-triploid mosaic at about 26 hours of incubation. Both of the triploid embryos were conceived within a 5-day period. The presence of a single genome of paternal origin with marker chromosomes in each triploid led to the conclusion that these embryos were derived from diploid, ZW-type ova fertilized by haploid, Z-type spermatozoa. The inheritance pattern of the mosaic embryo was clearly due to a spermatozoal origin for the haploid cell line; and one genome of the three in the triploid cell line was paternal. The sec chromosomes were Z/ZZZ, with one Z of each cell line being a translocation product of paternal derivation.