Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are all albino specimens found in the wild? Ive heard of several cases where albinos have been found in the wild, but is it possible to get a mutation in captivity? The mutation has to start somewhere, and the genes dont do well in the wild when paired together, so nature selects against maintaining the trait. Has anyone experimented on gene mutation in captivity at the level of mutation?

My other question is one of gene splicing. We did a lab in biology where we took the gene that causes a jellyfish to luminate and placed it in the DNA of E. coli, producing glowing individuals. Can you remove albino genes from reptiles and place the genes into potenial offspring of a related species and thus produce an albino to a species that previously had no albino form previously?

As far as I know, all known reptilian albinos started with wild caught individuals. But just like you say, albinos must come from somewhere. There is no reason why a spontaneous mutation cannot happen in a captive stock. And many mutant genes have turned up in captive stocks of fruit flies, mice, pigeons, and other species. Striped appeared when a pair of captive corn snakes were bred. As far as I know, nobody has used radiation, chemicals, etc, to try to induce mutations in reptiles, though such mutagens have been used to induce mutations in lab mice and fruit flies.

I don't think anybody has tried gene splicing in reptiles. But my guess is that all that is needed to do so is the desire and the necessary time and money.

Paul Hollander

We did a friut fly experiment in bio, and our flies came out with 3 albinos in I believe the fourth generation. Our instructor though it was interesting that we suddenly produced albinos which were not supposed to be there. We didnt save the albinos for the next generation, and also didnt save any hets as we never produced another albino.

That was the same class that we did gene splicing in.

Albino fruit flies? I've raised some pretty strange flies since Paul's dad introduced them to me in 1965, but I've never heard of an albino. If your mutants truly were new to science, they should have been saved. Establishing a new stock from a single mutation is not difficult providing the fly is fertile.

There are at least a couple of different genes that cause albinism (amelanism) in snakes. I would guess the most common is tyrosinase negative melanism. The enzyme tyrosinase is necessary to complete the biochemical pathway that produces melanin. Without it, no melanin. A specific gene produces melanin. For any given snake, if both genes of the pair it has are defective and fail to produce active tyrosinase, the snake has no melanin. I think you missed a major genetic concept when you asked if transplanting albino genes from one reptile to another would allow the production of albinos in the second species. Placing recessive mutant genes in an otherwise animal is not going to cause melanism for the simple reason that it will have its own normal genes which allow for melanin production.

Willard Hollander, incidentally, was one of the best teachers I ever had. Not that I was his best student - I still don't know how to get a flock of sheep that are 3/5 Ramboullet eccept to buy 3 of them for every 2 others - but he taught me that thinking and mental flexability were important.

Bigfoot

I intended to hit preview but hit post instead. In the message above, I should have said a specific gene produces tyrosinase.

In today's technology, incidentally, scientists are producing mice and other mammals homozygous defective for specific genes using the "knockout" technique. I don't think it has been tried on research birds, however, and it is likely to be a verrrry long time before someone tries it on snakes.

Doc

By knockout, do you mean removal of the gene that produces melanin? Wouldnt that be a possible way to produce an albino?

>By knockout, do you mean removal of the gene that produces melanin?

Actually, the normal gene is replaced by a mutant allele in tissue culture, one that either does not produce a product or produces a defective product. Then the mutated cells are injected into early embryos. If you're lucky, they develop into part or all of the gonads of the embryos they are injected into. A knockout animal can then produce a litter of babies and the babies interbred to produce the desired homozygotes.

There is no gene that produces melanin, incidentally. In amelanistic animals, one of the enzymes in the melanin producing pathway is lacking or nonfunctional. Such animals are homozygous for a defective gene responsible for producing the enzyme.

>Wouldnt that be a possible way to produce an albino?

Sure. Do you want to spend 6-10 years and maybe $100,000 doing it?

Bigfoot

Well I tried. I was hoping to produce albinos in species which currently dont have albinos available in the pet trade. First albino stocks are good money. Now I have to do it the old fashioned way: find them in the wild.

I believe the Albino Green Tree Python and Brazilian Rainbow Boa were both of captive origin.

Imagine being the lucky person, breeding two animals together and getting the first amelanistic examples.