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Post by Admin on Feb 14, 2008 0:23:34 GMT
There's a new article on Pink-Eyed Dilution up for the advanced genetics section. Pink-Eyed DilutionEd
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Post by Loz on Feb 14, 2008 1:12:23 GMT
Very thorough Ed ;D
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Post by belueberry on Feb 16, 2008 0:34:39 GMT
What a wonderful article. Now of course the question it all poses is this: is it ethical to selectively breed for pink- or red-eyed individuals? Not easily answered!
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Post by Loz on Feb 16, 2008 1:24:40 GMT
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Post by Admin on Feb 16, 2008 1:52:55 GMT
Well the pink-eyed dilution gene in our gerbils still effectively leaves a lot of pigment in the eyes, so any visual deficits will probably be minor. However you can get pink eyed animals by combining any of the mutations on the C locus with pp to get pseudo albinos, and these animals will have very bad vision. However you have to realise that most rodents with rod based vision rely on many other senses to get by and vision is just a fall-back sense that they use. if depth perception is bad they will use their whiskers and touch to quickly adapt to their world. For more info on gerbil vision have a look at the article I wrote here, Gerbil visionYou'll see that vision is only a small part of their overall senses that they use, and they employ many strategies in their daily routines which rely minimally on just vision alone. Ed
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