I see this and have no idea what it means, can someone help me understand? Thank you... JAZ
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F1 female, F2 female, F1 male, F2 male...
JohnZ
Oct 02, 2003 09:27 PM
Replies (2)
drgrim775
Oct 02, 2003 10:12 PM
It starts with the parental generation, P1.
Then you have the first generation offspring, F1.
Then it's second generation offspring, F2 and so on down the line.
Paul Hollander
Oct 03, 2003 01:00 PM
The terms "F1" and "F2" comes from genetics.
The F in F1, etc, stands for "filial", meaning offspring. So the F1 generation is the offspring of the P1 (parental) generation. The male and the female P1s differ in one or more genes. And the offspring of a brother x sister mating of F1s are the F2 generation. There is little point in going to the F3 or later generations in animals. That's more common in plants that can be self fertilized.
In herping circles, sometimes the F1, F2, etc., generation refers to the number of captive bred generations that a particular animal is out of the wild. IMHO, this is poor use of the terms. But it goes to show that you need to know what definition the originator of a thread uses.
Paul Hollander
