First of all, all I know about paradigm boas comes from www.paradigmboa.com. We all stand or fall by its accuracy. And second, eventually the boas will tell us what gives through breeding results. Right now we are just brainstorming.

The first thing that caught my eye was that Sharp albino mated to caramel (aka boawoman hypo) produced a whole litter of paradigms and no normals. Unfortunately the number of babies was not included. However, if there were 10 or more babies, I'd expect some normals if this is not a case of multiple alleles.

>I believe that the Caramel Hypo gene and the Sharp gene are completely separate genes and not the same gene at all. The notion that a Tyrosinase positive and a Tyrosinase negative gene could be the exact same gene seems like a pipe dream to me.

I agree with this. I do not think the caramel (boawoman hypo) and the Sharp albino genes are the same gene, too.

What I do think is that Sharp albino and caramel are different genes that had the same ancestor gene. In other words, a normal gene in one snake contained a mistake when it was reproduced. This gene came down to us as the Sharp albino gene. And the same normal gene in another snake had a different mistake, which came down to us as the caramel mutant gene. Think of the original normal gene as a long word, like Eisenhower. In one location there was a change in one letter, say the h becomes a b and the spelling is now Eisenbower. In a different location there is a different misspelling, say the s becomes a g and the spelling becomes Eigenhower. "Eisenhower" is analogous to the normal gene, "Eisenbower" is analagous to the caramel gene, and "Eigenhower" is analogous to the Sharp albino.

Here's how a case of multiple alleles works. Genes come in pairs in individual creatures. But in this case, there are three genes that might be plugged into two slots. They do not all fit. If I have two wall electrical plugs, and two lamps, two toasters, and two TVs, only two of these six appliances can be run at the same time, but they could be any combination of two.

Take a piece of paper and tear it into six pieces. Write normal on two pieces, Sharp albino on two pieces, and caramel on two pieces. Divide the pieces into two piles, left and right, so that each pile contains one normal, one caramel, and one Sharp albino. Now pull one slip from each pile. These two slips are a pair of genes. There are six different combinations of one slip from each pile:
1. normal and normal
2. normal and caramel
3. normal and Sharp albino
4. caramel and caramel
5. Sharp albino and Sharp albino
6. caramel and Sharp albino
By the way, pile source does not matter as long as one piece of paper comes from the left pile and the other from the right pile. A pair made of a caramel from the left pile and a Sharp albino from the right pile is the same as a pair made of a caramel from the right pile and a Sharp albino from the left pile.

Now let's put the names of the appearances to these combinations:
1. normal and normal = normal
2. normal and caramel = normal (het caramel)
3. normal and Sharp albino = normal (het Sharp albino)
4. caramel and caramel = caramel
5. Sharp albino and Sharp albino = Sharp albino
6. caramel and Sharp albino = paradigm boa

For what it's worth, there are cases of multiple alleles with more than eight rather than just three. One case of multiple alleles is in the mouse. The tyrosinase negative albino mutant has several mutant alleles that can make melanin. These other mutant alleles make different amounts of melanin, but in all cases they make less than the normal allele makes.

Hope this helps.

Paul Hollander

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