Dominance and recessiveness are relative to the gene pairs you are talking about. We generally classify genes as "Dominant" or "Recessive" *relative* to the Normal trait.



Albinos are "simple recessive" which means it is a single gene trait that is recessive to the Normal trait. An animal with one copy of a Normal gene and one copy of an Albino gene will look like a Normal because the Albino gene is recessive.





This is courtesy of http://www.geneticswizard.com

Basic Genetics Definitions

Allele - either of the two paired genes affecting an inherited trait (one from the father, one from the mother).



Codominant - an allele that causes the homozygous form to look different than wild type and the heterozygous form to have traits of both. (All three look different from each other.)



Dominant - an allele that causes the homozygous form and the heterozygous form to look the same as each other, but different than wild type.



Recessive - an allele that affects a animal's appearance if it's present in the homozygous state only.† An animal that's heterozygous for a mutant, recessive gene looks wild type, but that gene can be passed on to offspring.



Heterozygous - having two different alleles for a genetic trait.



Homozygous - having identical alleles for a genetic trait.



Wild Type - the way an animal looks with the greatest frequency in a wild population ("normal".




-----
Lincoln, NE

Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly

2.1 Normals

Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae

Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

[ Show Entire Thread ]