Re: CULT:ROT:Is it genetic?

In a message dated 8/8/2002 6:20:14 PM Central Daylight Time, 
Autmirislvr@aol.com writes:


> Genetics?  Perhaps. 

I was talkin' to old Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) the other day and askin' if he 
could explain some of the gene things to me cause I was from Mississippi and 
a little dumb. This works pretty good most of the time gittin' folks to do 
things.

He said why sure and proceeded only after cautioning me that not everyone had 
the same interest as me. He said he was gonna keep it kinda simple cause I 
was, and he started to preachin'.

First he said you gotta understand the peas. What? You know them peas where I 
crossed the black ones and the white ones. OK go ahead.

Well, Bill, basically a gene may come in two contrasting forms called allele. 
It don't necessarily have to but it very often does. So Gregor you're 
suggestin' old Darwin's "Survival of the Species" had some merit, right? Yes, 
but more to point you need to understand that when they differ one of these 
little allele is stronger and one is weaker. OK, you're saying one is 
dominant and one is recessive. So what difference does that make?

Well, I'm gonna' keep this simple, Bill, cause you're from Mississippi. OK, I 
prechate that. Suppose you got a gene for purple foliage that is recessive 
and one for green foliage that is dominant. But Gregor, I'm not patient. I 
wanna know about rot. Learn something first, Bill. OK, if I gotta.

Well, when you cross them peas, oops I mean irises. We designate the dominant 
green foliage alele by (A) and the recessive alele by (a). The first time we 
cross them not much happens except we get more irises and all green foliage. 
Nowadays yawl call that the F1 generation and designate the combined alele by 
(Aa). OK, what's your point Gregor?

You see Bill, you gotta have a reason for your crosses unless you are just 
trying to make seed. Suppose you were trying to make purple foliage. You 
would need to cross two of the F1 generation seedlings to have the recessive 
(a) alele express itself in a plant with purple foliage. Yawl call this cross 
the F2 generation. According to my thinking, and you gotta do a bunch, the 
resulting seedling distribution of purple foliage would look a lot like the 
results in my pea experiments. When I did the peas I expressed the results in 
a ratio that worked out to be 1:2:1 to represent the combinations of alele. 
In your world this ratio would be expressed AA-2Aa-aa. Gregor! That looks a 
lot like some of old Isaac Newton's math when he was multiplying (A+a)x(A+a). 
So your saying 25% on average are gonna have that (aa) or purple foliage 
characteristic on average, right? You got this part, Bill.

Bill, I did not meet Isaac or yawls buddy Dykes until I came over here. I 
didn't know much about math or irises until now. But I been talkin' to em a 
lot since making the trip. We laugh a lot. About what, Gregor?

Sometime about peas, sometimes about monks, sometime about information and 
misinformation, sometimes about problem we encountered over there. Sometimes 
we argue but God intervenes pretty quick. You know I was a monk. Gregor, I 
don't know that much but I want to know more about the jokes and Newton and 
monks and Dykes and stuff you have a handle on. Share some of that inside 
stuff with me.

No Bill, I'll do that later. You need to stick to the task at hand and stick 
to the genetic propensity for rot thing. Remember that Eaves feller down in 
Texas that said there could be more than one factor that helped the rot along 
under different circumstances? Yes. And, Bill, do you remember a post from a 
lady mentioning the "bell curve". Yes, Gregor I remember that too. Well, I'm 
pretty sure she was talking about the normal distribution. These two folk are 
trying to point you in the right direction. They are both pretty close to 
right according to what Isaac says. How Gregor?

We just took a simple case using purple foliage as an example. Suppose 
factors like producing straight as opposed to arched stalks, dormant vs. 
evergreen tendencies, narrow vs. wide foliage, etc.,  and assumed they were 
all factors that under different conditions could contributed to your rot 
problem. You can see how manipulating the alele to a desired combination 
becomes more complex can't you? Yes, Gregor it seems quite complex. Looks a 
lot like maybe (A1+a1+A2+a2 + A3 +a3) x(A1+a1+A2+a2 + A3 +a3) if those 
actually were the genetic factors that contribute to rot. That's a whole 
bunch of numbers if I perform the multiplication. I see why you been talking 
to Mr. Newton. And I see why you think collecting a lot of data and plotting 
its distribution curve would be of benefit.

Gregor, this post is getting pretty long and my wife always fusses when she 
sees I've wasted time on my computer. Can we continue this discussion later?

Sure Bill, I look forward to doing so. Wait til I tell you about the bored 
monks and the peas! Plus, I've got to tell you about your buddy Dykes. Sure 
glad I met him! You are gonna fall over laughin' you bein' from Mississippi 
and all.

Smilin' morein' laughin' cause I'm pleased with old Gregor's effort,

Bill Burleson 7a/b
Old South Iris Society






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