I originally also subscribed to the theory that the thing added to lesser to make a platy was recessive but with more breeding results posted that doesn't seem to be the case.
1. RDR made the butter version of platy without inbreeding. So it must be just one additional allele to turn a lesser (or butter) into the platy.
2. No lesser X lesser has been reported to produce platy. If the extra ingredient was recessive then surely since all RDR line lessers are descendent from the platy a pair of hets would be bred by now. The allele theory explains why no lesser can carry the extra gene to make platy.
Is it impossible that an allele could be inherited differently?
dr del
MIGHT be happening with pied. The leopard might be a new allele of the pied gene that is fully co-dominant (as opposed to the old pied allele that is officially recessive but with frequent but less extreme co-dominant tendencies).
Russ, I think it's like you said, even the homozygous hidden seems to remain hidden. Would love to know what sort of mutation that could be that only shows up when paired with other mutations of the same gene. I'm sure with all the hidden X hidden pairings RDR did early on he produced some homozygous hiddens but then later he did a platy X platy pairing that produced a normal that per the allele theory of platy should be homozygous hidden. Don't know if he kept it and bred it to a homozygous lesser BEL to confirm that pairing produces 100% platy as expected.
MIGHT be happening with pied. The leopard might be a new allele of the pied gene that is fully co-dominant (as opposed to the old pied allele that is officially recessive but with frequent but less extreme co-dominant tendencies).
Russ, I think it's like you said, even the homozygous hidden seems to remain hidden. Would love to know what sort of mutation that could be that only shows up when paired with other mutations of the same gene. I'm sure with all the hidden X hidden pairings RDR did early on he produced some homozygous hiddens but then later he did a platy X platy pairing that produced a normal that per the allele theory of platy should be homozygous hidden. Don't know if he kept it and bred it to a homozygous lesser BEL to confirm that pairing produces 100% platy as expected.
I don't think that specific pairing has been done, but it would be interesting to see. Perhaps a suggestion should be made to Ralph to attempt that pairing. I would also like to see the hidden paired with the other members of the BEL complex (Russo hets in particular) to see what else could be produced from it.