Genetics confusion

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

Het just means a pair of mismatched genes, not half a morph. Het bel and het lesser are the same thing. You basically have two names for the same gene in that sense. Your dealing with the heterozygous form of the gene. But if im looking at a at the alleles sitting there i call them lesser genes not het bel. While there technically nothing incorrect about besides we have many ways to make a bel, so i see it as less accurate.

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Yes, I understand what it technically means. But please refer to the part of my post that I bolded. "As applied to ball python morph names"...the term "het" IMPLIES one half of a matched set. So if you say, "het lesser" you're implying that the animal has one half of the set needed to make a lesser.

I'm not disputing that a lesser is a heterozygous mutation. I'm just saying that I don't believe it is accurate to refer to the animal as "het lesser."

Just when I think I'm getting a grip on this genetic thing... lol

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

I don't really understand what's so confusing about a 9th grade bio topic.

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My 2 cents, I was in 9th grade biology 20 years ago. Since I haven't used or needed my genetics lessons until I got interested in BP's, I've forgotten most of what I've learned.

Conversely, most of what people learned in Intro to Law classes in HS, they don't remember. But I can quote you case law and criminal law better than some attorneys because I practice and use it daily.

Plus, the law is my 'thing' and I love it, but it bores many people to tears or just flat out confuses them. Just as the vast biological terminology confuses a lot of people who just aren't into biology.

I think the other problem is popular terminology. I understand it can be technically inaccurate, and just because the population majority uses it doesn't make it right. But it's what the majority uses, so it's what we've got to work with.

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Originally Posted by JLC

Yes, I understand what it technically means. But please refer to the part of my post that I bolded. "As applied to ball python morph names"...the term "het" IMPLIES one half of a matched set. So if you say, "het lesser" you're implying that the animal has one half of the set needed to make a lesser.

I'm not disputing that a lesser is a heterozygous mutation. I'm just saying that I don't be assuminga we areare calling themy allele lesserlieve it is accurate to refer to the animal as "het lesser."

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Thinking that way causes confusion, why do people assume that het implies anything other than what it actually means? I also find the last part contradicting because your saying you think is inacurate to call it heterozygous lesser, which it is. Assuming we are calling the allele lesser

Or are we going to assume het does not equal heterozygous?

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

Thinking that way causes confusion, why do people assume that het implies anything other than what it actually means? I also find the last part contradicting because your saying you think is inacurate to call it heterozygous lesser, which it is. Assuming we are calling the allele lesser

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Ok....this is MY understanding of how this terminology is typically used in the ball python morph world.

The term "het albino" is just a shortened version of "heterozygous for albino".

Therefore, the term "het lesser" would have the same connotation, "heterozygous for lesser".

And given the utter confusion on the matter, no matter which side of the argument a person is on, why should "het" be used in reference to lessers (and other dom/co-dom morphs) in the first place? Applying the term "het" in such a redundant fashion IS confusing. You don't call an albino a "super albino" or a "homo albino". It's just an albino.

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

Or are we going to assume het does not equal heterozygous?

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No, that's not what I'm saying. I think we're stuck in a semantic dance and neither of us is going to be able to get the other stepping on the same beat.

OWAL could solve this occasional confusion of the uninitiated by turning ON trade names as the default on his calculator. :D

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Originally Posted by wax32

OWAL could solve this occasional confusion of the uninitiated by turning ON trade names as the default on his calculator. :D

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It is....

I think it was best stated here as the difference between phenotype and genotype.

What JLC is saying, is that ball python morph naming uses the phenotype naming system, that mainbutter refers to.

What Ohhwataloser and paulh are saying is referring to the genotype.

Everyone is right, yay! :banana: