Extreme Genetics

To resolve the confusion, I'll try to make this make more sense

During Gamete production, crossing over can happen.. So we'll say you've got your two parental chromosomes here.. I'll Use Be for blue eyes and M for mojave. Below are matched chromosomes

---Be------M----
-----------------

Before sperm/egg are produced crossing over can happen so you'd have


-------------M---
---Be------------


Each chromosome would have it's own sperm, so you'd have a sperm with Be recessive/codom gene(I would speculate that it's recessive) And one with whatever other gene/genes gives mojave their flavor.

So we'll say that this animal is paired with a sperm containing a normal mojave set of genes

---Be---------M---
---Be--------------

So now that blue eye is heterozygous, and would be expressed at is in the Blue eyed leucistic, seen below.

---Be---------M---
---Be---------M---

If the other Be chromosome is paired with a normal chromosome you'd get

------------------
---Be------------

I hope this helps.

While it's certainly possible that blue eyes are a mutation of a separate gene closely linked to the gene containing the various mutations that make blue eyed leucistics (mojave, lesser, butter, Vin Russo, Mocha, phantom), it doesn't seem likely given that all these different (with the possible exception of lesser and butter) mutations would be found linked to the same separate blue eye gene. I think it's more likely that blue eyes are just one of the expressions of being homozygous for a mutation of a single gene just like the white skin.

Perhaps a more likely example to demonstrate crossover would be when trying to combine two presumed separate mutations, like axanthic and hypomelanistic. However, again, not particularly likely for any given pair with the limited data available yet.

I agree, and my knowlege of morphs is admittedly, rather low. I think that accounting for the possibility of crossover when breeding in the future might come in handy. Maybe before too long it won't be very expensive to sequence the BP Genome. Wouldn't that be a fantastic source of information?

Absolutely the possibility of crossovers should be considered. Ball python people are just starting to think of multiple mutant alleles and linking/crossovers will be very extreme should we eventually encounter it (and I suspect we will). I did hear of a case with leopard geckos once that might indicate two linked mutations and a crossover but I don't remember the details. Also, years ago I wondered if green and labyrinth might be linked in Burmese pythons but I've not followed that close enough to know if it's yet been disproved.

I don't personally think the Blue Eye gene is separate for one reason. Blue eyes can easily be explained by Leucism. The dark coloring of the eye is pigment, just like in humans. So Leucism is just working with the eyes as well as the skin pigments.

From my eye doctor. I have blue eyes and when he was dilating them he said it should be really quick and I asked why. He explained that blue eyes lack pigment that dark eyes have, so the dilating solution doesn't have to go through as much pigment.

Hope that helps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by colemaj

I agree, and my knowlege of morphs is admittedly, rather low. I think that accounting for the possibility of crossover when breeding in the future might come in handy. Maybe before too long it won't be very expensive to sequence the BP Genome. Wouldn't that be a fantastic source of information?

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there are a ridiculous amount of animals that have already been sequenced, I'm not sure if BP's are one of them. but then the question becomes: so what? how do you aim to find the locus of certain genes coding certain traits?

JonV

One thing I think we could use would be a commercial paternity test for ball pythons. I searched a couple years ago and found they even had tests for some fish. With the very real possibilities of retained sperm and perhaps even parthogenisis a paternity test could be good insurance with recessive mutation. It could also serve as a deterrent to theft as even the offspring of stolen animals could be identified.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brimstone111888

I don't personally think the Blue Eye gene is separate for one reason. Blue eyes can easily be explained by Leucism. The dark coloring of the eye is pigment, just like in humans. So Leucism is just working with the eyes as well as the skin pigments.

From my eye doctor. I have blue eyes and when he was dilating them he said it should be really quick and I asked why. He explained that blue eyes lack pigment that dark eyes have, so the dilating solution doesn't have to go through as much pigment.

Hope that helps.

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But what about black eyed leucistics?