C. Circle of Life descendants - color breaks but not virus!

[Fairorchids]

Ordinarily, when you see color breaks in Cattleya flowers, the assumption is that the plant has virus.

I have 6 different C. Circle of Life from the original population produced by Fordyce. Those plants do not exhibit any color breaks in the flowers.

However, I have noticed 'yellowish' color breaks in the petals of a number of first bloom seedlings, which have C. Circle of Life as a parent. Young 1st bloomers are unlikely to have virus, if you maintain good procedures in your collection, so this puzzled me.

I finally got hold of some reliable virus test kits (Agitest from Taiwan), and so far these plants are testing clean. So, my hypothesis is that there can be a genetic 'issue' when you use C. Circle of Life as a parent.

And, I will never again throw out a plant without testing it first.

Here the most extreme example of the color breaks in (Circle of Life x Melody Fair). Both flowers are from the same plant, and blooming at the same time. In the first flower it is barely noticeable, in the second flower it is very obvious.