Genes and alleles are two different things. Genes are the coin, alleles are the sides of the coin.



A Pastel is like having a quater with a face (Pastel allele) and a back (Normal allele).



A Super Pastel is like having an achilles heel coin with a face (Pastel allele) on both sides.



A Killerbee is like having two coins. One coin is an achilles heel with Pastel on both sides. The other coin has a Spider on one side and a Normal on the other.



At any given time only one side of these coins can be seen at one time, which is an analogy of inheritance: only one of the alleles from each gene can be passed on in a single gamete.



Whether Spider is dominant or recessive to Normal is immaterial for the most part. I haven't seen conclusive evidence of Dominance or Codominance either way, so I have no opinion on that. If you prefer, the example could be "Lesser" instead of "Spider" and the patterns of inheritance are the same. Or you could consider the "Spider" coin to also be an achilles heel (Homozygous Spider) any breeding of which would result in all Spider or Spider Combo offspring.



coldbloodaddict said it well also:

"...it’s a 2 gene morph, just with one gene being Homozygous…



Are Snows 4 gene morphs?



Is an Albino 100% Het Axanthic a 3 gene animal???"



Since the above is often confused for opinion instead of genetics facts, here are some resources I have used in the past:

1) http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~mcclean/plsc431/mendel/mendel1.htm

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendelian_inheritance

3) http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cbbc/courses/bio4/bio4-1997/01-Genetics.html

4) Lodish H, Berk A, Zipursky LS, Matsudaira P, Baltimore D, and Darnell J (2000). Molecular Cell Biology (4th ed.). New York: Scientific American Books.

5) Brooker, R. J. (2008). Genetics: Analysis and Principles. New York: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math.


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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

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