> There is no hets when working with Co-dominate genes, at least
> in the striped bloodline of Pacific Gophers I worked with.
Heterozygous means that two genes in the gene pair are different.
Gopher snakes, like all snakes, are a diploid animal. That means genes exist in pairs - and every gene pair has exactly one gene inherited from the mother and exactly one gene inherited from the father.
If both genes are identical, it is homozygous.
If the genes are not identical, it is heterozygous.
If one gene is responsible for striping in pac gophers, which is my understanding, then if you breed a homozygous for stripe with a homozygous for normal, all the young must get one gene in that gene pair from each parent, so all the young must be heterozygous. Now if it is dominant or co-dominant, they may display the stripe phenotype but they are still heterozygous.
Pair one of those heterozygous with a normal, and half the time it will pass on the stripe gene - half the time it will pass on the normal gene. Half the young will be heterozygous stripe (and may display stripe phenotype) but half will not.
What is possible is that there are several different genes that can cause striping, and the bloodline you worked with may have several of those genes, making it difficult to produce a snake that has none of them.
If for example there were 2 different genes on different gene pairs that can cause striping, breeding with a normal would produce double hets - and breeding those hets to normal again would have 2 different ways of passing on a gene that causes striping, so producing one that has neither would be more difficult.
> In the Bloodline I worked with there was no hets involved, they
> where all striped and there is no way to bred the striped gene
> out of this bloodline. I worked with this bloodline for 9
> years. I bred a striped to several WC normals and all offspring
> come striped. Thats is not to say there is not another striped
> gene out there that is simple receive, but I haven't seen it
> yet.
Het does not mean it doesn't display the trait it is het for.
How many generations of normal breeding did you try?
IE - F1 = striped
F2 = F1 x normal (will make hets, but may all be striped)
F3 = F2 x normal (should produce some normal if only gene involved)
etc.
It would not surprise me at all if there was more than one striped gene at different gene pairs (just as there often are more than gene at different gene pairs for hypomelanism) and crossing lines has resulted in some stripers that have more than one striped gene, which would make it potentially more difficult to get back to normal.
IE if there are 4 different genes at different gene pairs that cause striping and are codom, and a parent is heterozygous at all 4 pairs, it would only pass 4 "non stripe" genes on to 1 in 16 young. 15/16 young would have at least one striped gene, which if co-dominant, would hatch out a striper. That's an extreme example.
Maybe next year I'll buy one of your stripers (if you breed for sale) to pair with a normal from wild caught stock and see what happens.
It's also possible that striping isn't a single gene phenotype in pac gophers, but is more complex.
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3.6 L. getula californiae - 16 eggs (Cal. King)
1.1 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (Cal. Alligator Lizard)
