Reptile & Amphibian Forums

basically, it would be greatly appreciated if someone would tell me what this is all about....Anery, Hypo, Het, Double Het, then you go on to the Superhypos, and super this, and super that... It is all pretty confusing.... and then there are the percentages.... thats a whole different ballgame... i mean, how does one know that thier boa is 66% het for anything. I mean, if you bred a normal with an albino, wouldnt they be 50%? maybe i have it all wrong...

Is there a site out there to explain it all in laymans terms? I would like to but some Boas in the classifieds, but all these terms throw me off.... Thanks for the help...

Also.... one last thing. How do you know what traits are dominant or recessive?

A great site that explains most of this is

www.Boaphile.com

***Scroll all the way down to the THINK TANK banner, click on it, click on the picture, and you will be in the Think Tank.

Go to the different sections and they explain LOTS of this stuff.

Take care, Joe Rollo - BciJoe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

Here is what most of the terms mean..

Anery is short for anerythristic. Anerythristic is the name given to the genetic trait that removes reds and yellows from the animals pigment. So an "anery" boa is a boa that is more or less black and white.

Hypo is short for hypomelanistic. Hypo is a genetic trait which reduces the black pigment throughout the animals patterning.

Het is short for Heterozygous. Het means the animal carries the genetic trait it is het for. For example a het anery is an animal that looks normal but carries the anerythristic gene, and when bred to either another het or a homozygous (visible form) it will produce anery offspring along with more hets or possible hets.

Double Het means the animal is carrying 2 different genetic traits. For example an animal that is double heterozygous for striped albino carries the albino gene, and the striped gene.

The term super hypo or super salmon etc is used when the animal is a dominant form of that genetic trait.. Only codominant animals can have a super (dominant) form. The way a super is achieved is both parents have to be carrying the trait. For example if you breed a hypo to a hypo you would have a litter that results in approximately 25% of the offspring being normal, 50% being normal hypos and 25% being the dominant form aka super hypos.
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com

An explanation of the 100% hets, 66% hets and 50% hets is as follows.

When you breed an albino to an albino the litter will be completely albino
When you breed an albino to a het albino half of the litter will be albino and the other half will be 100% het albino (the reason the normal looking ones are 100% het are the homozygous "visible" form carries 2 copies of the gene where the het "non visible" carry one copy. When the albino gene from the albino combines with the normal gene from the het the offspring still get the albino gene but only 1 copy so appear normal, and when the albino gene from the albino combines with the albino gene from the het they offspring will be an albino)
When you breed an albino to a normal the litter will be normal in appearance but be 100% het albino.
When you breed het albino to het albino the litter will be approximately 25% albino, 50% het albino and 25% normal. This litter is where you end up getting 66% possible hets.. The reason that is, is you cannot physically see a difference between the het offspring and the normals, so you must label all normal appearance animals as possible hets.
When you breed a het albino to a normal the litter will be approximately 50% het albino and 50% normal. Meaning half of the normal offspring inherited the albino gene and the other half did not, but as with the above litter you cannot differentiate the normals from the hets so all must be labeled 50% possible het albino.

I hope I didn't confuse you more.. Good luck with it.

later
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com

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IF YOU HAVE IT SHOW IT. IF YOU OWN IT FLAUNT IT!!

To be accurate anerytherism is lacking red pigment only. Axanthic lacks yellow, and as far as I know, they don't exist.

Matt

I probably should have said it has a reduced yellow as a neonate.

Thanks..
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com

Come on, Randy. You know better than that.

>Het is short for Heterozygous. Het means the animal carries the genetic trait it is het for. For example a het anery is an animal that looks normal but carries the anerythristic gene, and when bred to either another het or a homozygous (visible form) it will produce anery offspring along with more hets or possible hets.

Het is short for Heterozygous. Trait is what you see, and the genes in the nucleus of each cell work with the environment to produce what you see. Heterozygous means that the two genes in a gene pair are not the same. For example, an albino gene paired with a normal gene, or a salmon (AKA hypo) gene paired with a normal gene. The appearance of a heterozygous animal determines whether a mutant gene is dominant, codominant, or recessive to the normal gene.

If a snake looks normal and has a mutant gene paired with a normal gene, then the mutant gene is recessive to the normal gene.

If a snake has a mutant gene paired with a normal gene and that snake does not look normal, then that mutant gene is either dominant or codominant to the normal gene.

If a snake has a mutant gene paired with a normal gene and that snake looks like a snake with two mutant genes, then the mutant gene is dominant to the normal gene.

If a snake has a mutant gene paired with a normal gene and that snake looks like neither a normal snake nor a snake with two mutant genes, then the mutant gene is codominant to the normal gene. IOW, you can detect the influence of both genes in the animal when a codominant gene is paired with a normal gene.

>The term super hypo or super salmon etc is used when the animal is a dominant form of that genetic trait.. Only codominant animals can have a super (dominant) form. The way a super is achieved is both parents have to be carrying the trait. For example if you breed a hypo to a hypo you would have a litter that results in approximately 25% of the offspring being normal, 50% being normal hypos and 25% being the dominant form aka super hypos.

Super is herper slang for "homozygous for a codominant or dominant gene". If a snake has a hypo gene paired with a normal gene, it is heterozygous for the hypo gene. If a snake has two hypo genes, then it is homozygous for the hypo gene. As snakes with a hypo gene paired with a normal gene don't look normal and often can't be told from snakes with two hypo genes, the hypo mutant gene is dominant to the normal gene (is a dominant mutant gene). And hypo is a dominant mutant gene whether a hypo snake has two hypo genes or one hypo gene paired with a normal gene.

Herper ghetto genetics drives me crazy!

Paul Hollander