A Lesson in Basic Genetics

[paulh]

Human genetics has not yet adopted the wild type standard but it's good for ball pythons. Revision in the 1920s for wild type (AKA normal) is to use the + character for wild type, either alone of as a super script. So Y = yellowbelly, and either + or Y⁺ or y⁺ for wild type. As far as I know there is no official symbol for yellowbelly, so I'm keeping it as simple as possible. The Yb symbol is a possible alternative, though.

[paulh]

Here are a couple of useful links for gene symbols:

Link to a paper from the BioScience journal giving rules for appropriate gene symbols --
http://www.ringneckdove.com/Wilmer's...ioscience.html and search for the section "Use of a standard of reference".

Link to Guidelines for Nomenclature of Genes, Genetic Markers, Alleles, and Mutations in Mouse and Rat -- http://www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen/gene.shtml. Sections 1 and 3 are the most useful parts.