Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know they can do it for mice, especially transgenic mice. And it's relatively cheap, but I don't know how much it would be to find, say a hypo gene on a genome to begin with. But once that's done, there's a relatively simple test that can be done to find it on an individual. Wouldn't that be great? No more poss hets! Just wondering if anyone with that sort of background knowledge has looked into it.
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7.22 BRB
10.20 BCI
1.1 Mandarin Rat Snakes
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
0.2 Corn Snakes
2.8 Leopard Geckos

I did not know they were doing it for mice. It has been used for awhile by dog breeders to select breeders for certain coat colors. I think horse and cattle breeders are also using genotype testing. I would think it would be expensive to identify the genotype say for hypomelanism for the first time and then cheap and easy testing other animals after that. With mammals they collect cells (my best guess is epithelial cells) from inside the cheek. The inside of a snake's mouth may not have so many loose epithelial cells to easily harvest.
Jeff

>>I know they can do it for mice, especially transgenic mice. And it's relatively cheap, but I don't know how much it would be to find, say a hypo gene on a genome to begin with. But once that's done, there's a relatively simple test that can be done to find it on an individual. Wouldn't that be great? No more poss hets! Just wondering if anyone with that sort of background knowledge has looked into it.
>>-----
>>7.22 BRB
>>10.20 BCI
>>1.1 Mandarin Rat Snakes
>>0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
>>0.2 Corn Snakes
>>2.8 Leopard Geckos

They do it for mice in research when they are trying to cure a genetic disease. So they breed transgenic mice and genotype them to find out which mice in the litter carry the disease, then try their treatment on the mouse. I didn't know they could do that, but it makes sense. It just seems like it would be hard to find that initial set of codons to test for. But I find it fascinating!!
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7.22 BRB
10.20 BCI
1.1 Mandarin Rat Snakes
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
0.2 Corn Snakes
2.8 Leopard Geckos

We use a marker test in ACDs to locate Progressive Retinal Atrophy carriers and affected animals within our breeding populations. The test we use requires a blood draw. It was costly and time consuming to develop the initial test, but once that was available it was a lot easier to determine which other breeds the test worked on and develop modified tests for other breeds. We do a second type of DNA test using the cheek swab as a genetic fingerprint. I expect it wouldnt be too hard to develop a test for a recessive color mutation because the info is visual. The PRA test took longer because its a late occurring disease, usually not developing until 7 years old, so there was a lot of unknowns that had to be proved. Once a population was established and known affected, clear and obligate carriers (hets) were identified, things moved a lot quicker. I've definitely thought it would be nice to have such a test for hets, its made a huge difference in my ACD breeding program and it'd save a whole lot of time with the color morphs in BRB.
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Julie

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