From what I've found on the web, merle is caused by a dominant (not "dominate" mutant gene, though possibly "codominant" might be a better description. A dog is merle if it has at least one merle mutant gene. Mating a merle dog to a non-merle dog will produce at least some merle pups. Homozygous merle dogs have two merle mutant genes and seem to show a more extreme expression of merle than the heterozygous merle dogs (with a merle mutant gene paired with a normal gene).



There is no such thing as a dominant recessive mutant gene.



Dominant and codominant mutant genes are found in many species, including humans and ball pythons.



Paul Hollander
merle web page

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• Off topic but need some genetic advice - Amelcorn, Tue Sep 20 10:45:46 2005
• RE: Off topic but need some genetic advice - Paul Hollander, Tue Sep 20 11:37:36 2005
• Gnats! - Paul Hollander, Tue Sep 20 11:40:04 2005