Hmm, and here I thought spiders were a Co-Dom trait like Pastels....oh well not the first time I am wrong in my thinking, very interesting read.

I am not surprised to hear that Spider x Spider may result in a 'lethal' combination. Many spiders have that head wobbling trait which may be the lethal gene in it's het form. But then again I am just guessing here. I can't even afford a single spider much less the time and space to do a serious breeding experiment to find out how often spider x spider produce normal or otherwise, non spider offspring or if the wobbling head common to many spiders, is related to the lethal genes etc.

Gene sequencing is no easy task, they have only recently mapped the human genome and that took what, 20 years? and that is just mapping it, figuring out what all the pairings do and affect, is still on going. Though snakes are a bit less complicated with, I think, fewer chromosomes, (then again, maybe they have more, seems most animal life have more than the human numbers), it will take a long time to really isolate what chromosomes and genes affect color and pattern, much less what mutant genes can be lethal etc.
-----
PHLdyPayne

[ Show Entire Thread ]