Hello Paul,

Thank you so much for your informative response!

It’s been years since biology, so I broke out one of my ol’ books last weekend for fun. The experiments by Thomas Hunt Morgan on his fruit flies started the wheels turning !



I’m definitely no genetics expert, and it is not kind to my impatience to look up dead ends on the net.

It’s nice to find a forum where people are willing to share their knowledge!

May be you are available to clear-up one more thing?

.........Or 2?



>"I think you mean a crossover in the middle of the gene. It's possible, but if there was only one base pair difference in the sequence of the two genes, then the results of the crossover would be no different from the original genes. A real difference would require a difference of two base pairs and a crossover between them. And then the results might be no more than other genes in the list of alleles that Randy gave."



I was actually thinking of the point where a diploid set becomes haploid, and the pair of homologous chromosomes already exchanged broken fragments while they were still attached; Joining the leucistic allele on the end of the chromosome that carries normal color/pattern.



Then one chromosome takes the leucistic causing allele along with the normal color/pattern allele to one pole, and the sister chromosome takes the morph pattern/color gene to the opposite pole w/o the leucistic gene.



I guess I am basing this on the assumption of there being 2 separate alleles for leucisim and pattern/color morphs; and that the gene for color/pattern or leucism is located more towards the end of a chromosome vs. the middle?



Otherwise, how could there be black and blue eyes? Or even those wicked eyes with the red stripe down the middle? The existing pattern/color showing through where it can? So I wondered that leusism is existing somewhere else, and not linked to color/pattern. Or may be, the leusistic gene occurs so close to pattern/color; that they rarely ever cross w/o eachother?



And I guess, at this point, NEVERMIND!!!! That’s probably what you were getting at, LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



……Just dawned on me. HA HA! I think I’m going to post this sorry answer to my own question anyways!



>"Heterozygous means that the two genes in a gene pair are different. This can mean that one gene is a normal gene and the other is a mutant gene. Or it can mean that the two genes are different mutant genes, such as lesser platinum//mojave."



I thought that Lucy’s had to be homozygous for the leucistic gene, in order to be white?, And basically, if a lucy is bred to a normal, the offspring are all hets for leucism? Why is it incorrect to call a Mojave a het for leusism?



Thank you so much!

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