A spider is a het, it has one mutant copy of the spider gene from one parent and a normal copy of the spider gene from the other. When a spider breeds it randomly gives either the mutant or non mutant copy to each offspring (or at least we think it's random). Theory predicts that 25% of the offspring from spider X spider should get the non mutant version of the spider gene from both parents and be completely normal.



The big question is what happens to the 25% that by theory should get the spider gene from both parents and be homozygous spider. No one has yet come forward with a homozygous spider which even if it did look like a normal heterozygous spider (i.e. if spider is a dominant mutation) could be proven by producing only spiders out of lots of babies when bred to non spiders.

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• spiderXspider..can it produce normals? - irishanaconda, Sat May 23 08:42:07 2009
• Yes - RandyRemington, Sat May 23 09:12:45 2009
• RE: Yes - kingofspades, Sat May 23 11:27:54 2009