What's a super?

[AKA Dave]

Since I've gotten back into the Herp world, I've been reading a ton and talking to a lot of knowledgable folks. Since I've gotten into morphs, that's led me to a number of questions. They just were not around when I was doing this. That being said, I am learning all I can and reading a lot specifically on Bananas and their parings. I keep hearing about this mythical thing called a Super Banana. Can anyone explain what a super form is in morphs in general?

Dave

[Eric Alan]

A "Super" is the homozygous version of a co-dominant (or incomplete dominant) morph. It means that the animal is carrying two copies of the same gene, one from each of its parents. This guarantees that it will pass one of those genes along to each of its offspring. This is helpful in breeding, as it places the odds strictly in your favor when it comes to hatchlings. Also, many times the super form is visually different (sometimes drastically so) than the regular form of the morph - a nice perk indeed.

In the case of your Super Banana example, each of its parents were carrying the Banana gene, which they both passed along to the Super Banana. This Super Banana will in turn pass a single copy of the Banana gene along to each of its offspring.

[CrazyPiston]

Right, what Eric said. In less technical terms...

If you have a banana parent each baby has a 50/50 shot between being normal or banana.

If you have a super banana parent all babies will be nanners, because the parent only has banana gene to pass on.


(OK, so the main reason I posted was so I could call them nanners. )

[OhhWatALoser]

It depends who you talk to. Besides the example above, it can also apply to homozygous version of dominant gene, but some don't use it that way. Then some would consider allelic combos (morphs in the same complex) super and some people don't, which those are heterozygous combos, not homozygous.

You will get along with most people if you use it in the sense that it is an animal that when bred, produces nothing but that morph. Super banana produces all bananas, super pastel producesall pastels. It's what makes them super right?

[AKA Dave]

OK. All that makes sense, and was kind of what I thought after forcing myself to remember genetics from college bio courses. Now, to take this a step further. In the Super Banana scenario as an example, I am assuming that the only way to find out if an offspring from a Banana x Banana really is a Super is through either genetic testing or through consecutive breeding cycles to see what he/she produces. Any problems with this pairing, like I am reading about with Spider x Spiders? And, why is the Super Banana akin to chasing a unicorn? Seems pretty straight forward to me. By my count and bit of logic from Gregory Mendel, seems there should be 25% chance for normals, 50% for Nanners, and 25% chance for Supers.

Dave

edited for stupid spelling mistake.

[OhhWatALoser]

Super bananas look different than regular bananas

[AKA Dave]

Super bananas look different than regular bananas

Is there a pic out there? Can't seem to find one.

Dave

[paulh]

You will get along with most people if you use it in the sense that it is an animal that when bred, produces nothing but that morph. Super banana produces all bananas, super pastel producesall pastels. It's what makes them super right?

... it is an animal that when bred to a normal, produces nothing but that morph.