Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What I don't understand is that phenotypic traits are most commonly not just Recesive vs. Dominant. Most of the time there are more than one gene that codes for one phenotype. I think people need to be aware of this b/c you can do genetic ratios up the yin yang, but there are Codominant traits, Multiple allele traits and things like Interference to consider.
Thanks,
Randy
AlphaDragonZ

Welcome to the science of herping. I don't say this to be a smart ass, but I believe that when we start looking at it on a genetic level we'll really start to make some great leaps in what we can produce. I watched it happen in ball pythons about 8-10 years ago and look where they are now, I saw a snake a few months ago go for $75,000 what a beautiful animal it was too.

Sean
Heart Mountain Herps

This stuff is familiar to anyone breeding rodents, whose genetics have been studied a lot more (there are something like 30 loci identified in pet rat breeding). The problem with most herps is that they take so long to breed that it's tough to prove that things are chromosome linked or are alleles at the same locus, or other such things. So we tend to divide things into simple recessive independently assorting 'morphs' and things that are vaguely geneticly controlled and can be 'line bred'. But you're right, it is very important for people to be watching out for this stuff. It's just hard to tell if trait X is a fluke or something that can be worked with.
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