How can a male snake be a "female maker" or "male maker"?

I'm just putting this out there for my own clarification - feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken:

From my understanding, whichever parent is the Banana trait carrier will determine what sex Bananas the male Banana offspring will predominantly produce.

• If a male Banana is produced from a female Banana, this male Banana will produce predominantly female Bananas (a "Female Maker").
• If a male Banana is produced from a male Banana, this male Banana will produce predominantly male Bananas (a "Male Maker").

Thanks for your insight in advance!

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Originally Posted by Eric Alan

I'm just putting this out there for my own clarification - feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken:

From my understanding, whichever parent is the Banana trait carrier will determine what sex Bananas the male Banana offspring will predominantly produce.

• If a male Banana is produced from a female Banana, this male Banana will produce predominantly female Bananas (a "Female Maker").
• If a male Banana is produced from a male Banana, this male Banana will produce predominantly male Bananas (a "Male Maker").

Thanks for your insight in advance!

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Correct, and female bananas produce typical sex ratios.

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Originally Posted by Dave Green

Correct, and female bananas produce typical sex ratios.

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Of which I know you're selling a few. ;)

If the *female* determines the gender, the only way I can see a *male* snake throwing *male* babies is if male bananas are actually actually ZZW, rather like how male calico cats are XXY. But, then, the male bananas should be mostly sterile, so that doesn't work either.

Other option, the female chromosome is often incompatible with the banana-carrying genome, causing failure to develop, along the lines of the fabled 'super spider'?

*flails* this is really strange and really doesn't make sense.

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Originally Posted by Spiritserpents

*flails* this is really strange and really doesn't make sense.

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Says the entire BP community...

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Originally Posted by Spiritserpents

If the *female* determines the gender, the only way I can see a *male* snake throwing *male* babies is if male bananas are actually actually ZZW, rather like how male calico cats are XXY. But, then, the male bananas should be mostly sterile, so that doesn't work either.

Other option, the female chromosome is often incompatible with the banana-carrying genome, causing failure to develop, along the lines of the fabled 'super spider'?

*flails* this is really strange and really doesn't make sense.

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Actually it is the male that determines the sex. Also just because male Calico cats are mostly sterile does not mean that this would apply in ball pythons as they are not calico house cats.

Uhmmm... no... in snakes, and birds, the female is the heterozygote and the male is the homozygote, opposite of mammals.

So in snakes, the *female* determines the gender of the offspring.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3754893/

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In snakes, females are the heterogametic sex, in that they have two different sex chromosomes, Z and W, while males have two Z chromosomes.

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lol I forgot that reptiles and birds were backwards.

That is a great article and interesting to see that morphology (and faster evolution/genetic drift) is caused by the males.

Great thread:)

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Originally Posted by Spiritserpents

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Other option, the female chromosome is often incompatible with the banana-carrying genome, causing failure to develop, along the lines of the fabled 'super spider'?

*flails* this is really strange and really doesn't make sense.

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My understanding is that a banana female mated to a normal male produces equal numbers of male normals, female normals, male bananas, and female bananas. If that is correct, then the W chromosome is compatible with the banana-carrying genome.