Reptile & Amphibian Forums

At the risk of sounding rather stupid, what's the difference between Hypo and Het?

"het" is short for "heterozygos" which the heterozygous would mostly be with recessive genes, "homozygous" is the visible version of the genes (i.e. an albino ball python either came from two heterozygous parents or two homozygous (visible albino) or one of each parents) then it gets into the whole dominant, co-dominant, recessive thing, but het has to do with recessive genes mostly meaning in short- normal looking but when with another "het" will most likely produce the visible morph. "hypo" is short for hypomelanistic. "hypo" meaning lacking (but not a complete lack) and "melanistic" referring to the melanin (pigment or color) so basically "hypo" should look exactly the same as the others with slightly less pigment (in my opinion looking like it is in shed). but thats the only difference. i'm not sure about leopard geckos (just getting into them) but in ball pythons "hypo" (otherwise reffered to as "ghost" is a recessive gene. so you could have a "het hypo" but it will look normal.
thanks,
Levi
Oh yeah any corrections will be welcomed! thanks

Hypo in Leos just means less spotting. I could be mistaken but I think the unwritten rule is 12 or less on the body is the cut off for a Hypo. WIth the next step in the progression being Super Hypo. This means no spots on the body.
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Brian
www.windycitygeckos.com

Well explained. To add hypomelanisitic in Leos is a Polygenetic trait, AKA a line bred trait which takes several generations of selective breeding to achieve the desired look of the animal.