>I am willing to be wrong on the understanding of all this...but the way I see it is there are 2 alleles ...one a sharp albino allele and the other one is a T positive allele...this is what I think is trying to be proved....and that some how what this is showing is that the sharp Albino is the homozygous and ALSO the T positive is the Homozygous ...to me it seems like a 3 step genetic process instead of a normal 2 step recessive....now I don't claim to know genetics ....so go easy on me....but if you breed to make sharp albinos then the T positive gene gets reduced in a sense... that it would take 2 more steps to show back up in a homozygous state.....does that make sense? Or am I loosing it...LOL???

I'm not entirely sure that I understand what you are asking. If I'm off, please tell me. I flunked Clairvoyance 101, you know.

Off hand, I don't know how far back you started reading these paradigm boa discussions. So below is the link to an earlier post that may help, too.

You wrote "the sharp Albino is the homozygous and ALSO the T positive is the Homozygous". To me, this means that you are saying that there are two pairs of genes. One pair is made up of two Sharp albino genes, and the other pair is made up of two T-positive (AKA Moore caramel) genes. I've read other posts where I thought the poster meant that, anyway.

If this is what you mean, then this is the point where you and others have gone off the right track.

I want to be as plain and understandable as possible, so I'm going to use as little genetics jargon as I can. And I'll probably repeat sometimes. Anyway, I'm going to try to just use the members of the gene pairs. Or in this case, pair. Because there is only one gene pair, with two genes making up the pair.

Chris Gilbert suggested that the paradigm boa was produced by one Sharp albino gene and one T-positive (AKA Moore caramel) gene, which make a gene pair. Not two Sharp albino genes and two T-positive genes; just one Sharp albino gene and one T-positive gene.

Let's say you mate a paradigm boa (one Sharp albino gene and one T-positive gene) with a Sharp albino (two Sharp albino genes). All of the babies get a Sharp albino gene from the Sharp albino parent. Half of the babies get a T-positive gene from the paradigm parent. The result is a pair of genes made up of one Sharp albino gene and one T-positive gene, making those babies paradigms. In other words, that half of the litter is made up of paradigm boas. In the other half of the litter, the babies get a Sharp albino gene from the Sharp albino parent. And they got a Sharp albino gene from the paradigm parent. As these babies have two Sharp albino genes, they are Sharp albinos. In these Sharp albino babies, the T-positive gene is not reduced; it is totally absent. Unless the T-positive gene is reintroduced in a later mating, none of these Sharp albino babies will ever have a paradigm or T-positive descendent.

To get a T-positive baby both parents must have at least one T-positive mutant gene. If one gene is a T-positive gene, it does not matter what the other gene in the pair is. That other gene could be a normal gene. Or it could be a Sharp albino gene. Or it could be a T-positive gene.

A paradigm boa has a T-positive gene paired with a Sharp albino gene. If we mate a paradigm to a boa with at least one T-positive gene, then some of the babies will get a T-positive gene from the paradigm parent and a T-positive gene from the other parent. Such babies will have two T-positive genes. They will be T-positives and not have even one Sharp albino gene.

To get a Sharp albino baby both parents must have at least one Sharp albino mutant gene. If one gene is a Sharp albino gene, it does not matter what the other gene in the pair is. That other gene could be a normal gene. Or it could be a Sharp albino gene. Or it could be a T-positive gene.

A paradigm boa has a T-positive gene paired with a Sharp albino gene. If we mate a paradigm to a boa with at least one Sharp albino gene, then some of the babies will get a Sharp albino gene from the paradigm parent and a Sharp albino gene from the other parent. Such babies will have two Sharp albino genes. They will be Sharp albinos and not have even one T-positive gene.

Hope this helps.

Paul Hollander


Earlier post on paradigm

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