clearly stated...??
Okay, I've read through all these posts, and while stating the reasons very well, no one spelled it right out and made it easy to understand.
I'll try now:
Most of the morphs we deal with are associated with a single variable for each.
For instance, amelanism is located on the one gene that controls melanin production. Snow is a combination of 2 genes: the one for amel and the one for anery.
A few of the "morphs" are NOT associated with single genes, but MANY, and we aren't sure which ones.
An Okeetee, even though it's a normal, has been bred for thru generations looking for wider saddle borders, vibrant colors, no fading of colors on saddles, etc, etc.
When bred to a non-Okeetee, the babies become hets for MANY genes, not one. Some of those genes are recessive, and some are dominant, and there is no telling what's where.
Therefore, if you try to breed those babies back together to produce those same gene combos, its like starting all over. Sure, there may be some that look Okeetee, but you won't be able to say for sure, 'CAUSE YOU CAN"T TELL what's actually going on there.
SO, if you take 2 from that F2 litter that look really Okeetee and cross them, you'll still wind up with babies that don't look Okeetee.
Now, you're selecting the good ones and crossing them back in again-that's line-breeding-what was originally done to get the Okeetee look.
See how simple?
