lesser and Mojave question
I teach Biology in high school and keep a normal and lesser ball in my room. I am trying to figure out the genetics of this so that I can explain it to my students.
What I understand (or think I do:-)
- breeding lessers or mojaves to a normal gives you about a 1:1 ratio of normal/ morph in offspring.
- breeding 2 lessers 2 mojavesor lesserX mojave gives the traditional 1normal:2lesser or mojave:1BEL phenotypic ratio in offspring
Where I think I get lost:
I think what the ball python world calls codom is what we in science would look at as incomplete dom. example using red and white flowers with incomplete dom redX white= pink (lesser?) with codom RedX White = red and white spotted flowers. Most commonly thought of codom example in humans is blood type. with Type AB being the example of Codom
Also if you take a BEL (made from a Mojave X Lesser breeding) and breed it back to a normal do you get all lesser and Mojave? in 1:1 ratio?
Is the lesser and Mojave a example of multiple alleles like blood type?? where there are 3 or more alleles possible for the 2 alleles of the gene.
Help my brain hurts and the science geek in me wants to know how it works!
thanks for any info
Re: lesser and Mojave question
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lizlopez
What I understand (or think I do:-)
- breeding lessers or mojaves to a normal gives you about a 1:1 ratio of normal/ morph in offspring.
- breeding 2 lessers 2 mojavesor lesserX mojave gives the traditional 1normal:2lesser or mojave:1BEL phenotypic ratio in offspring
You got it....
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lizlopez
Where I think I get lost:
I think what the ball python world calls codom is what we in science would look at as incomplete dom. example using red and white flowers with incomplete dom redX white= pink (lesser?) with codom RedX White = red and white spotted flowers. Most commonly thought of codom example in humans is blood type. with Type AB being the example of Codom
Not lost at all...incomplete dominant = co-dominant in ball python speak.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lizlopez
Also if you take a BEL (made from a Mojave X Lesser breeding) and breed it back to a normal do you get all lesser and Mojave? in 1:1 ratio?
Re: lesser and Mojave question
thanks for the help
Ok so lessers and mojaves are different mutations in the same gene? and 2 of the mutated genes leads to the BEL weather they are lessers or mojave genes?
Re: lesser and Mojave question
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lizlopez
thanks for the help
Ok so lessers and mojaves are different mutations in the same gene? and 2 of the mutated genes leads to the BEL weather they are lessers or mojave genes?
yes, in fact there are other morphs that also will produce a BEL when paired with themselves/mojaves/lessers)
We call these morphs part of the BEl complex. Morphs that have a mutation on the same locus so when paired together a homozygous animal is produced (or at least there is a chance that one will be produced)
there are slight differences between BELs that came from a Mojave x mojave pairing, a Lesser x Lesser pairing, a Mojave x Lesser Pairing...
Re: lesser and Mojave question
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lizlopez
I teach Biology in high school and keep a normal and lesser ball in my room. I am trying to figure out the genetics of this so that I can explain it to my students.
What I understand (or think I do:-)
- breeding lessers or mojaves to a normal gives you about a 1:1 ratio of normal/ morph in offspring.
- breeding 2 lessers 2 mojavesor lesserX mojave gives the traditional 1normal:2lesser or mojave:1BEL phenotypic ratio in offspring
Where I think I get lost:
I think what the ball python world calls codom is what we in science would look at as incomplete dom. example using red and white flowers with incomplete dom redX white= pink (lesser?) with codom RedX White = red and white spotted flowers. Most commonly thought of codom example in humans is blood type. with Type AB being the example of Codom
Also if you take a BEL (made from a Mojave X Lesser breeding) and breed it back to a normal do you get all lesser and Mojave? in 1:1 ratio?
Is the lesser and Mojave a example of multiple alleles like blood type?? where there are 3 or more alleles possible for the 2 alleles of the gene.
Help my brain hurts and the science geek in me wants to know how it works!
thanks for any info
Actually, the ball python world follows the professional mouse geneticists in ignoring any difference between codominance and incomplete dominance. Except the mouse geneticists use the term "semidominant" instead of "codominant". (See the two-volume work Genetic strains and variants in the laboratory mouse.) The main reasons for ignoring the differences are the breeding ratios are the same for both and the genetics texts use different definitions. Using one text's definition, a mutant gene shows codominance. Using a second text's definition, the same mutant shows incomplete dominance.
There are some papers worth reading about this subject at http://www.ringneckdove.com Go to the Contents page and look for "Dominance", "Dominance, codominance, and epistasis", and "3 neglected advances".
The lesser and Mojave a example of multiple alleles like blood type. There are several other alleles in the series, too. IMO, the lesser gene is dominant to the mojave gene. In the pictures I have see, a snake with two lesser genes in a BEL, a snake with a lesser and a mojave gene is a BEL, but a snake with two mojave genes has some pigment on the head and back.
Re: lesser and Mojave question
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lizlopez
I think what the ball python world calls codom is what we in science would look at as incomplete dom. example using red and white flowers with incomplete dom redX white= pink (lesser?) with codom RedX White = red and white spotted flowers. Most commonly thought of codom example in humans is blood type. with Type AB being the example of Codom
AB blood type is A and B spotted cells. Spotted cells do not scale up to red and white spotted flowers.
