Genetic Analysis of Offspring of a Female-Female Pair in the Lesser Snow Goose (Chen C. caerulescens)

We used restriction-fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis to establish the parentage of a clutch of eight eggs being incubated by two female Lesser Snow Geese to determine if both females had contributed to the clutch, and whether a single male had fertilized both females. Genotypes at 30 polymorphic restriction enzyme sites were surveyed with 14 cloned DNA probes. Sexing of all individuals was done both by dissection and by use of a DNA probe that detected the presence of the W chromosome in females. Paternal genotypes were reconstructed from haplotypes of the offspring. We determined that both females had contributed to the clutch, and that each was fertilized by a different male.