Reptile & Amphibian Forums

np
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

My image Gallery

The 'albino gene' is really a gene that makes pigment. It's a melanin making gene. When the gene mutates, it can't make melanin any more. It's basically broken. Animals, of course, have 2 copies of each gene. If there's one broken copy and one working copy, the working copy will take over melanin production and the animal will be normally colored. We call this gene 'dominant' and the broken gene is recessive or masked. Only if the animal has 2 broken copies of the gene will it be unable to produce melanin, and it appears albino.

SO in a nutshell, albino genes are recessive because they don't work, and wild type genes are dominant because they do. And this goes for most of your missing color morphs like anery, ect.

You can now kind of see why pattern morphs tend to be codominant, because they are both working but different instructions for pattern.

I hope this is right because I made it up myself, but it makes a lot of sense logically.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

Unfortunately, striped and motley in the corn snake can be classed as pattern genes, and both are recessive to normal.

Here is something else to think about. Most mutant genes reduce the owner's chance of survival. So dominant mutant genes have a tendency to die off before breeding takes place. Recessive mutants don't show until they build up in the population to the point where heterozygote mates with heterozygote. Just the greater mortality rate in the heterozygote dominant individuals explains the scarcity of dominant mutant genes in the wild.

There is a dominant white mutant in chickens. And white with colored (green/yellow/blue) eyes is a dominant mutant in cats. So not all "albino" mutants are recessive.

Paul Hollander

Typically when a mutation maskes or removes something completely it is ressesive, although there are exceptions.