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The motley mutation expresses itself as if it is slowing down the migration of all sideways movement. In effect, the entire pattern is "squished" toward the spine. The belly checkers are moved up to the edges of the scutes, leaving the belly a clean white. The lower side blotches form small squished blotches partway up the side. The upper side blotches only reach the edge of the saddle area, and (along with an apparent lengthening of the saddles) tend to cause the saddles to connect, forming a "ladder" pattern. The stripe mutation expresses itself as a more extreme version of this effect. It causes the saddle and upper side blotches to only reach the edge of the saddle area, where they come together to form a line. It causes the belly and lower side blotches to only reach the center of the sides, forming a dotted or dashed line, or a complete lateral line. The migration appears to stop or severely slow at this point, which would be why the stripes are so thin, and "border" areas tend to be missing or reduced. The "cubed" pattern (and the squarish saddles on some striped corns) could result from some cells that are still able to divide as they migrate, creating the squarish markings. It has been previously thought that the checkerless bellies on motley, striped, and diffused corns was an additional effect. Based on the migration model, the effects of the motley, striped, and diffused mutants would be the direct cause of the lack of ventral checkering on those morphs. Notice that with the three "lateral-slowing" genes (motley/stripe/diffusion) the head pattern, and the pattern on the side of the head can be affected. The "tiger bars" on the jaw can also be affected, since they are the head's "belly checkers." [Home] [Digital Editions] [CMG Genetics Tutorial] [Serpwidgets Genetics] [Links] [Contact] Cornsnake Morph Guide is a registered trademark of Charles Pritzel All content on this site is copyright © 2004-2012, Charles Pritzel |