Genetics confusion

Okay, I'm a bit confused. I'm looking (in a year or two) to breed my normal girl with a lesser male I'm acquiring this weekend. What's confusing me is the co-dom lesser gene. I can't figure out what their offspring has the potential to be.

I used the OWAL genetic calculator and it said a normal x lesser would give me 100% normal het lesser offspring. Then I used the Genetics Wizard, and it gave me 50% normal, 50% lesser offspring. Which one is right? I re-read the forum on genetics here, and I'm thinking it's the 50/50. Can someone please confirm?

The second answer is closer to correct. The clutch itself may or may not be 50/50. Each egg has a 50% chance of hatching out a lesser.

its definitely the 50/50 one. only recessive traits will give hets and lesser is not a recessive as you already posted lol.

That's what I thought! I think the first genetics calculator messed me up.

...no laughing, I was a criminal justice/psychology/sociology major in college...

:D

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Originally Posted by pbjtime8908

its definitely the 50/50 one. only recessive traits will give hets and lesser is not a recessive as you already posted lol.

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I agree that it's the 50:50 answer. But you hit one of my pet peeves with the "only recessive traits will give hets". There are lots of het lessers. A het lesser has a gene pair made up of a lesser gene and a normal gene. They are known as lessers in the trade and do not look normal. The belief that a heterozygous snake looks normal is a holdover from the days when the only mutant genes in reptiles were recessive mutants. The lesser mutant gene is not a recessive mutant because the heterozygous snakes do not look normal.

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Originally Posted by paulh

I agree that it's the 50:50 answer. But you hit one of my pet peeves with the "only recessive traits will give hets". There are lots of het lessers. A het lesser has a gene pair made up of a lesser gene and a normal gene. They are known as lessers in the trade and do not look normal. The belief that a heterozygous snake looks normal is a holdover from the days when the only mutant genes in reptiles were recessive mutants. The lesser mutant gene is not a recessive mutant because the heterozygous snakes do not look normal.

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Okay, I may be confused, but I may not. So you're saying that there are true lessers, but there are also het lessers that look like lessers. So how do you know which one you've gotten, other than years of breeding or genetic testing?

Ignore the Paulh post... Unless your a genetics wizard yourself, you won't get it.. This is why we have people advertising things like het pastels on craigslist when there is no such thing. It gives the hobby a bad name.
Lesser IS co dom. Just leave it at that.

When bred to a normal, you will only get normal babies and lessers. Period. No hets at all.

To make things simple, we prefer to reserve the term "het" for recessive genes. Such as pied and albino.

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Originally Posted by JulieInNJ

...genetic calculator and it said a normal x lesser would give me 100% normal het lesser offspring. ...

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Originally Posted by paulh

I agree that it's the 50:50 answer. But you hit one of my pet peeves with the "only recessive traits will give hets". There are lots of het lessers. A het lesser has a gene pair made up of a lesser gene and a normal gene. They are known as lessers in the trade and do not look normal. The belief that a heterozygous snake looks normal is a holdover from the days when the only mutant genes in reptiles were recessive mutants. The lesser mutant gene is not a recessive mutant because the heterozygous snakes do not look normal.

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While I understand what you're saying about the slightly inaccurate use of the term "het"....the first genetic calculator was still wrong because it gave an answer assuming the "lesser" was a homozygous mutation.

I DON'T think it's inaccurate, actually, to reserve the term "het" for recessive morphs and not use it for co-dom morphs because it gets WAY too confusing and makes it that much easier for scammers to pull the wool over a newbies eyes when they try to sell their "het spiders" or what-not.

Yes, a "lesser" could also be accurately referred to as a "het for blue-eyed-lucy"...but that doesn't mean the term het MUST be applied to the lesser morph. Not to mention the confusing fact that mojos and several other DIFFERENT morphs are also "het for bel". How to differentiate them if they have to be referred to as hets?

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Originally Posted by JulieInNJ

Okay, I may be confused, but I may not. So you're saying that there are true lessers, but there are also het lessers that look like lessers. So how do you know which one you've gotten, other than years of breeding or genetic testing?

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He's saying that lessers should be referred to as "het" because they only have one mutated gene of an alelle pair. That condition is known as "heterozygous" or "het" for short.

When the two genes at an alelle are the same, it's referred to as "homozygous".

When both genes at that alelle are lesser genes, you get a blue-eyed-leucistic. So, the BEL could be referred to as a "homozygous lesser."

In recessive animals, the alelle must have both mutated genes to express itself. All albinos are homozygous for albino. An animal that carries one albino gene will look normal and will be called "het albino."

I HOPE that makes sense! I need more coffee..... :oops:

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

Ignore the Paulh post... Unless your a genetics wizard yourself, you won't get it.. This is why we have people advertising things like het pastels on craigslist when there is no such thing. It gives the hobby a bad name.
Lesser IS co dom. Just leave it at that.

When bred to a normal, you will only get normal babies and lessers. Period. No hets at all.

To make things simple, we prefer to reserve the term "het" for recessive genes. Such as pied and albino.

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Oh, thank god. My head was getting ready to explode, lol!

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Originally Posted by JulieInNJ

Okay, I may be confused, but I may not. So you're saying that there are true lessers, but there are also het lessers that look like lessers. So how do you know which one you've gotten, other than years of breeding or genetic testing?

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All lessers are heterozygous (aka het). Homozygous lesser is a BEL. Being recessive codom or dom has nothing to do with being heterozygous or homozygous. Btw on my calc you can click to use trade names box to change it to how people talk. You made you lesser homozygous using my calc to get that outcome. Which is a BEL

But to say there is no het lesser is wrong. ALL lessers are het. But since they are we just dont say it