Wine/Finding Your Phenotype

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Reading the Tend by Phenotype Table

The Tends by Phenotype table lists the yard state/tend combinations for each grape attribute based on the number of gene mutations expressed in the vine (the vine phenotype).

Vines with no mutations in a given attribute are considered "wild type" in that attribute, and the tends for the vine for that attribute can be taken from the appropriate column of the Wild Type table.

Similarly, if the vine has a single mutation in an attribute, the values for that attribute should be taken from the Single Mutation table, and so on.

For example, Amusement is considered to have a phenotype of GGVV. 
This means it will have "wild type" values for A, C, Q, K and S, 
and double mutation values for G and V.

Determining Your Phenotype - An Example

You can often determine the phenotype, and thus a large portion of the tend table values, for your crossbred vine after two or three tendings.

First Tending

Your first tending is Sagging/AS, and your results are:

• A: 8, C: 3, G: 0, Q: 4, K:<=0, S:<=0, V:-10

1. Checking the "wild type" table shows that the expected Sa/AS values are:
   • A: 3, C:-2, G: 0, Q: 4, K: -1, S: -1, V:-10
   • Thus, the A and C genes are not wild type. The G, Q and V may be wild type. It's not possible to tell anything yet about K and S.
2. Checking the "single mutation" table shows that the expected Sa/AS values are:
   • A: 8, C: 3, G: u/k, Q: 2, K: -3, S: 0, V: u/k
   • Thus, A and C may have a single mutation each.
3. Checking the "double mutation" table shows that the -10 value for V could also mean the vine has two V genes.

• After one tending, your presumptive phenotype is: AC(K?)(S?)(V?)

Second Tending

Your second tending is Musty/AS, and your results are:

• A: 3, C: -2, G: 2, Q: -1, K: 5, S: 7, V: -3

1. Checking the tables again shows that the G and Q values again match wild type, but V does not. Rather, the -3 value for V seems to indicate it may be a double mutation.
2. The A and C values match single mutation. There is also some evidence now to suggest that K and S are single mutation.

• After two tendings, your presumptive phenotype is now: ACKSVV

Third Tending

At this point, since you have a fairly good guess at your phenotype, you can select your next tending based on which one will best help you confirm your guess. If your yard state is now Fat, for example, you see that the PO tend gives values that can help you distinguish between wild type and double mutation V, and so on.

Your Fat/PO tend gives:

• A: 6, C: 5, G: 0, Q: 1, K: 8, S: 1, V: -2

1. G and Q match the wild type values.
2. A, C, K and S match the single mutation values.
3. V matches the double mutation value.

• At this point, you can be fairly confident that your vine phenotype is indeed ACKSVV.

Your Tend Tables

Once you are pretty confident about your phenotype (or at least certain attributes), you can start filling out the full tend tables for your new vine. Just combine the values from the correct phenotype table/column combinations into your own tables.

In our example, this would mean that all the A, C, K and S values would come from those columns in the Single Mutation table. The G and Q values would come from the Wild Type table, while the V values would come from the V column of the Double Mutation column.

Continue checking your actual tend results against your new vine-specific table, refining/revising as needed.

Filling Out the Phenotype Tables

The phenotype tend tables are initially filled in based on the presumptive phenotypes of the standard vines available at the various Universities of Worship. Since these starting vines do not include all possible single, double and triple mutations, the phenotype tables have blank columns in some places. (For example, there are no starter vines with an apparent single mutation in G or V, based on data from T3.)

Thus, you may find that the values for one of your attributes don't match anything in the table. This means that you've discovered a new phenotype! At this point, you're back to the old method of recording the results from each yard/tend combination for that attribute.

Once you have a good set of numbers for this attribute, you may be able to make a hypothesis about the number of mutations, based on the highest values seen. Generally, the larger the highest value seen, the more mutations in that phenotype (except for V, which will have a lower maximum as mutations increase).

Using G as an example, we see that the maximum value for wild type is +4, while the maximum value for double mutation is +12. If a new vine has maximum value for Grapes of +8 across all tends, it may indicate that it carries a single mutation for G, and we can fill in the G column of the Single Mutation table.

Ultimately, however, the number of mutations in a specific attribute should be confirmed by actual gene sequencing with Revelation Solvent, which is a topic for another guide.