Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I understand that if I breed 2 BCI normal's het for albino, het for anery, one in 16 offspring would be a snow. But what if I breed and albino and a normal het for albino, het for anery? I've been reading, trying to figure this out but I guess I must be missing something. Me and a friend spent hours yesterday and pages of notebook paper with punnet squares scribbled but I think we confused ourselves more. Thanks, Ed

>I understand that if I breed 2 BCI normal's het for albino, het for anery, one in 16 offspring would be a snow.

Statistically, that is correct. What actually happens could differ more or less. The difference between one litter and many, many litters also explains why casinos can pay off big winners and still make a profit.

>But what if I breed and albino and a normal het for albino, het for anery?

You can use a Punnett square. The genes could be symbolized as follows:
A = normal at the albino locus
a = albino
An = normal at the anerythristic locus
an = anerythristic
// = a pair of chromosomes. So A//a would be a pair of chromosomes with A in one chromosome and a in the same spot in the other chromosome.

The albino would be a//a An//An. All of its sex cells (sperm or eggs) would have a gene for albino and a gene for normal at the anerythristic location in the genome (locus), which is symbolized a An.

The heterozygous albino, heterozygous anerythristic would be A//a An//an. Half of the sex cells would have an albino mutant gene and half would have a normal gene at the albino locus. Half of the sex cells with the albino mutant gene would be An, and the other half of the sex cells with the albino mutant gene would be an. Same with the half of the sex cells that have the normal gene at the albino locus. In other words, this snake produces four types of sex cells -- 1/4 a An, 1/4 a an, 1/4 A An, 1/4 A an.

Combine each of the heterozygous albino, heterozygous anerythristic snake's four types of sex cells with the albino's single type of sex cell in a Punnett square. As Punnett squares are pretty hard to do in the kingsnake.com forums, I'll just give the results, which are
1/4 a//a An//An (albino)
1/4 a//a An//an (albino, heterozygous anerythristic)
1/4 A//a An//An (heterozygous albino)
1/4 A//a An//an (heterozygous albino, heterozygous anerythristic)

As the heterozygous anerythristic babies cannot be distinguished from the babies that are normal at the anerythristic locus, you could call all the babies 50% probability heterozygous anerythristic --
1/2 albino, 50% probability heterozygous anerythristic
1/2 heterozygous albino, 50% probability heterozygous anerythristic

By the way, 100% probability heterozygous albino is just a long way of writing heterozygous albino. Stamp out and eliminate redundancy!

Paul Hollander

So no snows from albino to normal het albino , het anery? Then the albino would also have to be het anery to make it snow?

If I understand what you're saying, I my case, with just an albino, I need an homozygous anery het for albino to make snows? Is this it? If not what do I need, with my albino male or can it be done with a an albino that is not het for anery?

Sorry. You can't make a snow in one generation from an albino.

Snow is a combination of albino and anerythristic. To be an albino, a baby snake must get an albino mutant gene from both mother and father. And to be an anerythristic, a baby snake must get an anerythristic mutant gene from both mother and father. To be a snow, a baby snake must get an albino mutant gene from both mother and father and an anerythristic mutant gene from both mother and father.

Possible matings that could produce snows (sex does not matter as long as one is male and the other female):
snow x snow
snow x albino, heterozygous anerythristic
snow x anerythristic, heterozygous albino
snow x heterozygous albino, heterozygous anerythristic
albino, heterozygous anerythristic x albino, heterozygous anerythristic
albino, heterozygous anerythristic x anerythristic, heterozygous albino
albino, heterozygous anerythristic x heterozygous albino, heterozygous anerythristic
anerythristic, heterozygous albino x anerythristic, heterozygous albino
anerythristic, heterozygous albino x heterozygous albino, heterozygous anerythristic
heterozygous albino, heterozygous anerythristic x heterozygous albino, heterozygous anerythristic

Good luck.

Paul Hollander

I hope people really apprieciate the time you take to answer their questions on genetics . I do and I thankyou for them.
Thanks
Brad

I absolutely do appreciate the time taken by Mr. Hollander and others, who I have very much respect for. You're right and I thank them for sharing their time and knowledge and for having such a positive attitude in their responses to the endless, repetitive questions. So, thanks Mr. hollander and all others who reply in an effort to help others understand. Ed Manix

I started out ignorant like everybody else and had endless questions for the more experienced people, too. So I try to pass on what they did for me.

Paul Hollander