i tend more towards the allele theory for two main reasons:



1) no distinct, VISIBLE, homozygous version of the dilutent gene has been produced yet (nothing besides platties, lessers and lucies came out of platty to daughter crosses...would have turned up by now)



2) although reacting like a codom and appearing visibly in the F1, the platty gene-cocktail appears to reproduce like a homozygous animal would...meaning, all offspring either seem to recieve the gene for lesser, or the hidden dilutent gene that makes lessers into platties...

so, ALL normals out of a platty would be heterozygous for the dilutent gene...and people paying extra money for animals that are closer to platty daddy thinking they have increased odds of getting the hidden gene are perhaps doing so in vain. RDR may have suspected this long ago...consulted with genetics experts back in '01, or for whatever reason made the shrewd move to hold back EVERY normal sib out of a platty. wise on them!



i also suspect that the allele theory may also be applied to the the lucies created by lessers...if the platy gene and lesser are alleles, then perhap mojave is also related in a similar manner, and finds it's home within what has now been coined by Mr. Remington as the "platty complex."

perhaps lesser-mojave lucies will prove to reproduce like a homozygous animal...meaning, all offspring will recieve either a mojave type gene or a lesser type gene...never siring a lucy like a bumblebee can sire a bumblebee when bred to an unrelated normal.

i would also take it al a step farther by suggesting that the mother of the crystal ball could be a carrier of a gene that behaves in the same conventionally baffling-at-first-glance manner as the platty-makin' gene, AND, RDR could produce "mojave-daddies(which may turn out to be what a crystal is), russo-daddies, and who knows what other kinda daddy depending on what morphs turn out to be alleles of the original platty daddy...

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