I noticed that the majority of snake breeding takes the Mendellian genetics model. While this model rocks, it's incomplete. What begs the question and is the subject of this post, is the possibility for using crossing over to make new morphs. No John Edwards, this is some fun science.

Alright, So the way crossing over works, is that one gene spontaneously switches to it's sister chromosome during meitosis. So what's that mean to you?

If you have two gene's on the same chromosome, they often appear together. We'll say Blue eyes and the gene to make a leucistic. It's possible that the same gene codes for both(in the case of mojaves) but if you look at the Black Eyed Leucistics that fireballs produce. I might have those backwards, but the idea remains. Blue eyes and White scales might be two different genes. It's possible then that one of the genes would cross over and move to a normal chromosome, not containing say, the leucistic gene. So now you have one gene with leucism, one with the blue eyed trait. Your off spring winds up being a black eyed leucistic when you expected a blue eyed leucistic. If this happens, then one of the normals that popped out would have a recessive gene for blue eyes, and no genes for mojave. Breeding this guy to a blue eyed leucistic would produce .50 blue eyed normal, .50 blue eyed mojave. Wild eh?

The next question is, is this really possible and how likely. The answer depends on the distance the blue eyed gene is from the leucistic gene on the chrosome. The farther they are away, the more likely crossing over becomes. If they're close, the chance diminishes but is still there. So, if you're lucky enough to get a black eyed when you expected blue... you can likely make a really awesome new morph. I don't know a whole lot about different morphs that express two different genes, but if you guys think of any, try thinking of th possibilities and ways to breed it out.


Let me know what you think, or if anyone has heard of the blue eye trait missing.