Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok, so i know that there are several ways to make a leucistic ball. Mojave x Mojave, Fire x Fire, Lesser x Lesser, Mojave x Lesser, etc. And i know that since all of these examples--since leucistic is a codominant trait--would essentially be "het" leucistic you get a mix of leucistic, and the component morphs with some normals right? So what i'm not clear on is what happens if you were to breed leucistic x leucistic? would you get 100% leucistic offspring? Some leucistic/some component morphs from the parents' parents? or some other combination. I'm not too good at genetics once you get past simple dominant/recessive traits.

No,depends on the leucist, take for example:

Super lesser: LL

LL x LL --> 100% LL

MojaveLesser

M. = mojave
L. = lesser

MmLl = leucist (has both codom. genes)

MmLl x MmLl

6.25% WT
12.5% Het. lesserc,
6.25% Homozygous lesserc,
12.5% Het. mojavec,
25% Het. mojavec, Het. lesserc,
12.5% Het. mojavec, Homozygous lesserc,
6.25% Homozygous mojavec,
12.5% Homozygous mojavec, Het. lesserc,
6.25% Homozygous mojavec, Homozygous lesserc,

Actually, that's incorrect. Mojaves and Lessers, while not being the same gene/morph, are found on the same locus. Which means that a Mojave Lesser x Mojave Lesser will throw out all leucistics because each parent is passing on either a mojave or a lesser gene to its offspring. Of course, a quarter of the offspring will be the super mojave grey-headed leucistics. It's a little confusing because they are different morphs, but a leucistic is homozygous for a mutant allele even though it has two different genes. They should be treated the same way as a super pastel, even though your intuition will lead you to believe that's wrong.

Man thats really confusing. What if you have a Mojavelesser x Leuc from two lessers/two mojaves?

It remains simple if you stick with two [Mojave x Mojave]s or two [lesser x lesser]s right?

Man thats really confusing. What if you have a Mojavelesser x Leuc from two lessers/two mojaves?

It remains simple if you stick with two [Mojave x Mojave]s or two [lesser x lesser]s right?

Here's how to handle a mating of a snake with a mojave mutant paired with a lesser mutant gene and a snake with two mojave mutant genes:

1. Identify the two genes in each parent's gene pair.
M1 = one of the male's two genes
M2 = the male's other gene.
F1 = one of the female's two genes
F2 = the female's other gene.
The mating can be represented as M1M2 X F1F2

2. Use the FOIL technique, which is a variation of the Punnett square. FOIL is the initials of First, Inner, Outer, Last. These refer to gene positions in M1M2 X F1F2.
F for first = M1F1
I for inner = M2F1
O for outer = M1F2
L for last = M2F2
And there are the four gene pairs found in the babies.

For a male leucistic with a gene pair made of the mojave and lesser mutant genes mated to a female leucistic with two mojave mutant genes:
M1 = mojave
M2 = lesser
F1 = mojave
F2 = mojave

F for first = M1F1 = mojave mojave = leucistic
I for inner = M2F1 = lesser mojave = leucistic
O for outer = M1F2 = mojave mojave = leucistic
L for last = M2F2 = lesser mojave = leucistic

As there are four combinations [two leucistics (mojave mojave) and two leucistics (lesser mojave)], the results can be reduced to
1/2 leucistic (mojave mojave)
1/2 leucistic (lesser mojave)

In the same way we get the following result from a leucistic (lesser mojave) x leucistic (lesser lesser):
1/2 leucistic (lesser lesser)
1/2 leucistic (mojave lesser)

This same technique works for any problem involving one gene pair. Problems involving two or more gene pairs are a little more complicated.

Paul Hollander

>but a leucistic is homozygous for a mutant allele even though it has two different genes.

I agreed with the above post except for this part.

Definitions:
Homozygous -- the two genes in a gene pair are the same.
Heterozygous -- the two genes in a gene pair are not the same.
(By these definitions, every gene pair is either homozygous or heterozygous.)

A mojave mutant gene is not the same as a lesser mutant gene. So a leucistic with a gene pair made up of a mojave and a lesser platinum is heterozygous, not homozygous.

Paul Hollander

Why not try a mojave lesser, to a platty x russo!

lots of variations of leucy!
-----
0.1 Pied
0.2 possible het pied
1.0 Albino
0.1 Albino het female
1.0 Spider
1.0 cinnamon
1.1 Pastel
1.0 Het genetic stripes
0.17 normal females

If you want to get really technical then, yes. What I meant by saying homozygous was that it would have no normal alleles and only mutant alleles at the BEL-locus. It just makes it a little easier to think about it as homozygous for the trait, when technically it is a het.