>I beleive that if the "Paradigm" mutation is a form of albinism (specifically that melanin is reduced or tyrosinase is present to alter it) then when bred together, a pair of "Paradigms" that are 100% Het. Sharp Albinos will produce a mutation that is homozygous for Sharp Albino also carrying the "Paradigm" trait but appears to be a typical Sharp Albino. Basically I'm saying that the Sharp Albino "Paradigm" may appear to be a regular Sharp Albino.

The problem that I think I see here is that genes have to be considered as pairs. And instead of two choices as usual in boas so far, we have three choices (normal, Sharp albino, boawoman caramel) to put into each of the two slots in the pair.

A het Sharp albino has a pair of genes made up of a normal gene and a Sharp albino mutant gene. A het boawoman caramel has a pair of genes made up of a normal gene and a boawoman caramel mutant gene.

A paradigm boa has a pair of genes made up of a boawoman caramel mutant gene and a Sharp albino mutant gene. This is a boawoman caramel//Sharp albino gene pair, not a het Sharp albino gene pair.

A homozygous Sharp albino boa (AKA a Sharp albino boa) has a pair of genes made up of two Sharp albino mutant genes. A homozygous boawoman caramel boa (AKA a boawoman caramel boa) has a pair of genes made up of two boawoman caramel mutant genes.

Note that we are dealing with only one pair of genes in every case so far.

"... homozygous for Sharp Albino also carrying the "Paradigm" trait ..." sounds to me like having a pair of Sharp albino mutant genes and then having a Sharp albino mutant gene paired with a boawoman caramel mutant gene in addition. That makes two pairs of genes, which is not kosher.

When animals make sperm and eggs, each sperm or egg has one gene from each gene pair in the normal cell. Take some scraps of paper. On one scrap write "Sharp albino", and on a second scrap write "boawoman caramel". This is the gene pair that makes a boa a paradigm. Repeat on two more scraps of paper. Now you have a gene pair for a male paradigm boa and a female paradigm boa. Pick one scrap from each pair. This is equivalent to a sperm from a paradigm boa fertilizing an egg from another paradigm boa. How many different combinations of genes can you get?

I get three combinations:
1. Two Sharp albino mutant genes
2. Two boawoman caramel mutant genes
3. One Sharp albino and one boawoman caramel mutant gene.

The pair with two Sharp albino mutant genes makes the snake a Sharp albino boa. There is no boawoman hypo mutant gene, so it cannot be a paradigm, too.

Paul Hollander

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