Black-bone silky fowl, sweet, pungent, and hot-natured, is one of the valuable domesticated birds with special economic value in China's genebank of poultry breed, which has a long history of medicinal and edible uses. It has the effects of tonifying liver and kidney, replenishing Qi and blood, nourishing yin, clearing heat, regulating menstruation, invigorating spleen, and securing essence. Therefore, it has remarkable efficacy of enhancing physical strength, tonifying blood, and treating diabetes and gynecological diseases. Various local black-bone silky fowl breeds have been generated due to the differences in environmental conditions, breed selection, and rearing conditions in different areas of China, which are mainly concentrated in Taihe, Wan'an, and Ji'an in Jiangxi province and Putian, Jinjiang, and Yongchun in Fujian province. The indigenous chicken breeds in China have different body sizes, appearance, coat colors, etc. The complex lineages lead to extremely unstable genetic traits. The diverse breeds similar in appearance result in the confusion in the market of silky fowl breeds. With the rapid development of molecular biological technology, the genetics of black-bone silky fowls has been intensively studied. This article reviews the research progress of the germplasm resources, genetic diversity, and breed identification of black-bone silky fowl in China at the morphology, chromosome, protein, and DNA levels. Further, it introduces the principles, application status, and limitations of DNA markers such as mitochondrial DNA, microsatellite markers, and SNPs. This review provides a theoretical basis for the mining of elite trait genes and the protection and utilization of local black-bone silky fowl germplasm resources in China.
Keywords: black-bone silky fowl; breed identification; genetic diversity.