Reptile & Amphibian Forums

On Sept. 10th, my female albino N. rhombifer gave birth to 11 babies. (all normal colored)
Mom and babies are doing fine.

Glad to hear of your success. That would be a great if the morph could be established in herpetoculture. It would bring some much needed publicity to Nerodia.
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Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

Congratulations on your success! I'm curious though as to why all eleven where/are natural colouration with no single aberant distinction? Be gentle please, my math is poor.
Michael

Mike,
Not sure, I thought there might be an odd looking one, even an amelanistic one or two, (since she was an adult amel), the theory is, there "should" be another amel in the pond where she was found, thus, another amel or het amel male that she could have been bred with.(meaning the offspring "should" have produced amelanistics.)

However, I am pleased with her and her babies.(The babies ARE hets).

Randal

I was about to make a very presumptious statement however, I'll make a less profound query (since diamonds tend to keep the juvenile colouration throughout adulhood??) ... is it possible that the albino genes will show later as they (it) grows or are they simply carrying the gene potential?
Michael

A lesson on Mendelian heredity:

Let's call the gene for normal coloration "A" and the gene for amelanism "a".

A snake generally carries two genes for a given trait, in this case amelanism, one being inherited from each parent. A snake with the genotype "AA" will be completely normal in coloration. A snake with the genotype "aa" will be amelanistic. A snake with the genotype "Aa" will also be normally colored because the "A" gene is dominant and overides the effects of gene "a".

In the case of this Diamonback, she is "aa" and has given birth to babies which are "Aa" (heterozygous). They all are simply carriers for the gene and will never express it in any form. If you were to breed two "Aa" animals, the litter would be 25% AA (homozygous dominant), 50% Aa (heterozygous), and 25% aa (homozygous recessive).

If you were to breed one of her sons back to her, the pattern of heredity would change because the cross would be "aa" X "Aa". The result would be 50% aa and 50% Aa.

Does this make any sense?

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Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

I'm Canadian eh! It really works. So, how do you pronounce AA as opposed to aa, eh? To be honest, it's the first time that I understand that a "het" is a gene carrier (recessive, right?). And shows the format of the gene if bred with another with a similar gene sequence, whether dominant or recessive so the off-spring will present the strength of the parental matches (question mark). Yes?
Michael

We need to draw him a punnet square for it. Make it easier to understand. I myself do understand most of genetics and "stuff".
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Justin