Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have pictures of a "Dominant Hypo Boa". Is there Dominant Hypo's or only Co-dominant Hypo boas.
Thanks,
Mike

Well I think you need to get some terminology right first. Dominant and codominant refer to TYPES of mutations. Some people believe that hypomelanism is dominant meaning that there is no visual distinction between the homozygous (super hypos) and heterozygous (regular hypos). A codominant trait is one where there is an intermediate visual form so you can clearly tell a difference from heterozygous individual to homozygous individual like with motleys or jungles. Some people believe hypomelanism is codominant, it just depends who you talk to. Now I know what you meant in your question because people mislabel heterozygous hypos as codominant hypos and super hypos as dominant hypos, but that is not correct. I went through this kind of fast so if you have any questions please post back. Dave Colling is really good at explaining all this out easily so perhaps he'll post here too.

I am just starting to learn about breeding boas, but wouldn't be until atleast a couple years from now. Your explanation was helpful, thank you.

I was told that the salmon gene is co- dominant. Which means when bred to any normal suriname the result is half salmon and half normal suriname. So you would get a litter of half normal Columbian Surinam crosses and half hypo Columbian Surinam crosses. now if you have a Dominant Hypo they only produce hypos... So if your suriname mates with your dominant hypo your entire litter would be hypo instead of half and half.

Does this make sense?

Thanks,
Mike

Your terminology is all wrong.

All Hypos are dominant - meaning that they are visually different looking in the heterozygous form, or Homozygous form.

The heterozygous (het) Hypo means that it has the Hypo gene from only one of its parents. When bred to a normal, approx half the babies will be Hypo.

The Homozygous (also called Super Hypo) means that it received the Hypo genes from both parents. All of its offspring will be Hypos

The Co-, in Co-dominant mutations simply mean that when two of the same dominant genes are bred together, a new mutation (look) takes place -- visually different from the heterozygous form. Such as Motleys, Aztecs, and Jungles.
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Snake room janitor

I think Morgan's boas left out a "not" in the dominant definition. Now he says they are dominant, I say codominant, we've had many many discussions on this board as to what people think hypomelanism is. Regardless, the inheritance acts the same way.

To the OP, check this out, it may help clarify things as far as what the genetics "look" like: www.salmonboa.com/Salmongenetics.htm

I may also recommend two books for you that are excellent. Designer Morphs by John Berry is very good as is The Complete Boa Constrictor by Vin Russo.

"Regardless, the inheritance acts the same way."

I agree

I'll go so far to say that Hypos are an incomplete dominant, but I can't believe that they're a co-dom. They're just not distinct enough to be able to seperate them with certainty.

Here's a non-Super that I own ( looks like a Super to me, but its not) Speckle-free belly too --

and another non-Super, that I produced from a Hypoxnormal --

Plus the fact that their have been darker Hypos that have proved to be Supers too

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Snake room janitor

>I'll go so far to say that Hypos are an incomplete dominant, but I can't believe that they're a co-dom. They're just not distinct enough to be able to seperate them with certainty.
At the level we are on, incomplete dominant and codominant mean the same thing. I prefer codominant only because it has fewer characters to type.

I've only touched one hypo and never owned one. The breeders who post here say that the two types can't be separated with certainty. That makes hypo a dominant mutant gene, even if it isn't a textbook perfect example of a dominant mutant.

I can say a number of good things about Russo's Complete Boa Constrictor book, but not about the genetics chapter. He makes most of the same mistakes that I see on herper web sites. He also says that a dominant hypo has two hypo genes and a codominant hypo has a hypo gene paired with a normal gene. Very sad!

Paul Hollander

Hi Mike,

I believe you are confusing genotype/phenotype with the relationship between the normal and mutated allele in the gene pair.

"Dominant" and "co-dominant" (and "recessive" refer to the relationship of the mutated allele to the normal one. For dominant and co-dominant traits, theoretically the trait will be expressed even if only one of the alleles in the gene pair is the mutation.

I think when you say "dominant" you really mean homozygous for
hypo gene (ie, both alleles in the gene pair are hypo mutation),
which is also referred to as a "Super Hypo." (Het hypos are normally to referred as plain "Hypo."

It seems to be controversial whether hypo is dominant or co-dominant, but even with co-dominance, you'd most likely
see some level of hypo expression with a heterozygous gene pair.
That's why a Super Hypo (what you are calling "Dominant" will produce all hypos. All the offspring will have at least one
hypo allele.

Hope this makes sense, the terminology can be confusing.

Thanks,
Ed

>>I am just starting to learn about breeding boas, but wouldn't be until atleast a couple years from now. Your explanation was helpful, thank you.
>>
>>I was told that the salmon gene is co- dominant. Which means when bred to any normal suriname the result is half salmon and half normal suriname. So you would get a litter of half normal Columbian Surinam crosses and half hypo Columbian Surinam crosses. now if you have a Dominant Hypo they only produce hypos... So if your suriname mates with your dominant hypo your entire litter would be hypo instead of half and half.
>>
>>Does this make sense?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Mike

I think I am starting to understand it now. So if I find a Super Samon boa one that was produced from two Salmon boas, then I mated that Super Salmon with my Suriname I would have all the babies from that litter really nice hypos.

Possibly ones that look like this boa or remotely close to it?
http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1646006,1646321

Thanks,
Mike

All the babies from a super salmon (AKA homozygous salmon) X Suriname mating would be salmons (hypos). They would also be Boa constrictor imperator X Boa constrictor constrictor subspecies crosses. How pretty the babies are would mostly depend on how pretty the parents are. Pretty parents are more likely to produce pretty babies than ugly parents. For what its worth, I think a Suriname X Suriname mating would be a better use for your Suriname.

Paul Hollander