Hornedness and polledness in sheep. VI. The inheritance of polledness in the Border Leicester

Abstract

Polledness in the descendents of a Border Leicester ram has been shown to be due to the action of an autosomal dominant gene. Dominance is complete in the female and partially so in the male.

As a result of matings between sheep containing this gene and sheep containing the gene P which results in polledness in the Merino, the Border Leicester gene has been shown to be either an allele of, or closely linked to, or identical with the gene P. The last interpretation is the simplest, and is accepted here.