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Other than being a simple recessive trait, has anyone worked out what is going on behind the scene for the anery trait? For example: if there are several genes responsible for the expression and intensity of red and yellow pigments (additive genetic variance?), then do anery individuals have those genes present, but they are not able to express them, because of a pathway blockage for production of a protein or something?

Thanks for any ideas......... Frank

The genes controlling the red/yellow expression are there, they just can't work. They can still affect which bits of the snake come out which shade of grey or white. The anery mutation only affects one certain gene, and all the rest are left to carry out their functions as best they can. Anery mutations are also quite confusing because there are two types, Type 1 and Type 2. Only Type 2 stays pure white throughout the animal's life, Type one still manages to become a bit yellow. It's sort of like T and T- albinos, I guess. Boa constrictors alone have type one and type two anery, and Kenyan sand boas have a type two anery mutation.
I wish I knew more about how both types of mutations work, hopefully someone else here knows.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

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In the corn snake, there are three mutants that affect the expression of red/yellow. Anerythristic (formerly anerythristic type A), charcoal (formerly anerythristic type B), and caramel (which reduces the amount of red).

There are not less than three and probably more like dozens of genes that work together to produce the red/yellow pigment in the normal corn snake. My guess is that boa constrictors have a similar number--in the dozens.

As for the biochemistry, I don't think anyone has worked it out.

Paul Hollander

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Caramel is really more of a hypoerythristic?

>>In the corn snake, there are three mutants that affect the expression of red/yellow. Anerythristic (formerly anerythristic type A), charcoal (formerly anerythristic type B), and caramel (which reduces the amount of red).
>>
>>There are not less than three and probably more like dozens of genes that work together to produce the red/yellow pigment in the normal corn snake. My guess is that boa constrictors have a similar number--in the dozens.
>>
>>As for the biochemistry, I don't think anyone has worked it out.
>>
>>Paul Hollander
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

>Caramel is really more of a hypoerythristic?

Just looking at a carmel corn snake, it seems to have less than the normal amount of red color. When combined with amelanistic to produce a butter corn snake, the effect is yellow instead of red.

"Less than the normal amount of red" is certainly the meaning of "hypoerythristic". But the mutant gene's name is "caramel". The name is established and reasonably discriptive and should not be changed. I've played too many games of "when an albino is not an albino" to want to start the same thing with caramel.

Paul Hollander

Heh heh... sorry... I'm into snakes where 'caramel' means 'T albino', so I was trying to clarify. Sometimes I wish the names would all magically become standardized, but even what looks like the same morph in two different species is probably slightly different anyway.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?