Congratulations on the litter!



>However, as speculated by several people including Paul Hollander, these two separate and different mutations are on the exact same locus or location on the genetic chain. This year we successfully bred a Paradigm male to a Ghost female. The resulting litter reveals the truth for the first time.



I'd call it another piece of evidence rather than proof positive. I am waiting for paradigm x paradigm matings.



>We believe this breeding also proves at least one more thing: As has been clarified on the forum thanks to Paul Hollander, the Sharon Moore Caramel Hypos are a form of "T-Positive" animals.



Which doesn't mean more than all of them are lighter than normal.



>Given the fact that we now know that the Sharp Albino trait and the Sharon Moore Caramel trait both rest upon the exact same locus, we believe we can say, with some level of certainty, that the Sharp Albinos in fact maybe "T-Positive" Albinos. The "greatest" or most complete form of "T-Positive" animals to be sure but in a more technical aspect there probably isn't really such thing as being "more" T-Positive than any other T-Positive animals. The supposed Boas either have their reduction of melanin altered by Tyrosinase or they don't. The differences are in how much melanin production remains.



I'm sorry. We absolutely can NOT claim that Sharp albinos are T-positive.



In the corn snake, amelanistic has been tested T-negative albino. Mating an amelanistic to an ultra, which is lighter than normal but has some melanin, produces babies with less melanin pigment than an ultra but more than an amelanistic.



In the black rat snake snake, there is an albino that has been tested T-positive albino. Mating one of these albinos to a xanthic, which is lighter than normal but has some melanin, produces babies with less melanin pigment than a xanthic but more than a T-positive albino. See Bern Bectel's paper in one of the 1985 issues of the Journal of Heredity.



We have no clue as to whether paradigm follows the corn snake or the black rat snake pattern. The only way to tell whether the Sharp and Kahl albinos are T-positive or T-negative is by a test. No tests have been done yet.



The differences among T-positive albino boas lie in how much melanin production occurs and which defective enzyme causes the reduction. Some T-positive mice have defective tyrosinase that can make some melanin. Other T-positive mice have normal tyrosinase. Defective enzymes totally unrelated to tyrosinase cause the reduction or absence of their melanin.



Paul Hollander

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