Reptile & Amphibian Forums

would someone explain to me what the term "super" means. I see super hypos and super salmons advertised. I assume it has something to do with the dominance of a particular gene.
Thanks.
John

When people are talking about supers they are talking about a homozygous expression of a codom trait. A regular hypo, motley, pastel ball, yellow belly balls, tiger retics etc etc are visual hets for the full gene (said "super" form).
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- Mike Fourquet

Cloaca Herpetoculture
www.CloacaHerps.com

Extend that to homozygous form of Co-dominant or dominant mutations. As Hypo boas are dominant, lol.

Its confusing for people because with a dominant mutation the given animal either is said morph or it isnt. No hets, no arguement. But with hypos there is more of a blurred line. Yes either an animal is hypo or not, but theres more to it. The Homo form (super or "dominant" hypo) and the Het form (regular hypos or "codom" hypos) are strikingly similar. Sure supers are cleaner, but theres really no way to pick them out of a batch of poss supers for sure without breeding them.

Because you can produce Super Hypos by breeding 2 hypos, and produce all "het super hypos" when breeding a super to a wild trait animal; its a codominant mutation.
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- Mike Fourquet

Cloaca Herpetoculture
www.CloacaHerps.com

Because the phenotype of the heterozygous and homozygous Hypos are the same, there is NO definate way to tell a Super from a non-super, the mutation IS classified as dominant. Better yet, incomplete dominant.

If Supers (homozygous) and non-supers (heterozygous) could always be determined from each other and from the wild-type it would be co-dominant. Such is the case with Motleys.
Normal (wild type), Motley (heterozygous form), Patternless (Homozygous form of Motley).

Incompleat and codom genetics are very similar, and can again be very confusing.

With an incompleat dominant trait if you were to cross a WT and a "Het" hypo you would end with a blending of the two resulting in a third trait that isnt either phenotype, but its own mutt version. A simle way to think about it is if you cross a colombian and an argintine. You wouldnt get colombians and argintines, you would get a blend mutt that isnt quite either. I do realize its not a literal example but its easier for everyone to understand...

With a codom, you get half and half, but never a new physical blend. This is shown when you breed a hypo to a WT, you get half hypo phenotype and half WT phenotype. If it were incompleat you would end with a full litter of "normypo" mutts.
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- Mike Fourquet

Cloaca Herpetoculture
www.CloacaHerps.com

http://salmonboa.com/articles.html

I find it odd that every other source says other wise. But if it is in REPTILES it MUST be true! ha.
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- Mike Fourquet

Cloaca Herpetoculture
www.CloacaHerps.com

Crossing subspecies has nothing to do with codominance.

Codominant and incomplete dominant are synonyms. In both cases, a snake with one mutant gene paired with a normal gene does not look like either a snake with two normal genes or a snake with two mutant genes.

>With a codom, you get half and half, but never a new physical blend.

The physical blend is in the snake with a mutant gene paired with a normal gene. And the blend is in appearance, not in the genes.

The reason you get half and half in the babies from this cross is because one parent has two normal genes and the other parent has a normal gene paired with a mutant gene.

Paul Hollander

I do realize that crossing two subspieces has nothing to do with genetics, as noted. But its was the easiest wat I could think of to think of a "blending" as apposed to a cut and dry codom. I was discussing this earlier today and a more literal example came up. Pastels arent cut and dry but a blend.
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- Mike Fourquet

Cloaca Herpetoculture
www.CloacaHerps.com