The X Pearl (x being another morph) will it work?

[Oxylepy]

I just saw a picture when I searched for a Lesser Pearl and my god it is brilliant.

I know that no one has had a Pearl thrive, but does anyone know if Pearls with another morph have thrived? If they do then it means that the Pearl may be able to thrive if the genome is dilluted enough off the originol line.

[Freakie_frog]

Nope the lesser Pearl also followed the others.

[Oxylepy]

Well that's depressing, it looked magificent. :/ I guess the Pearl may never prove stable.

[mainbutter]

If the pearl cannot survive on its own, combining it with any other morph won't "fix" it.

An analogy: You can't "fix" huntingtons, for example, by adding dwarfism or red hair

[Oxylepy]

Right, so if you breed two people who are recessive for huntingtons together and they give birth to a redheaded child who has huntingtons all red headed children they have will have huntingtons.

I wanted to check and see if anyone has bred out the issue with womas or if it is in fact the gene itself thats the issue.

I was wondering if through combining it with other morphs someone may have bred the fatal gene out, hence my statement that Pearls in and of themselves may never proove stable (in which case it is in fact the gene that causes them to be Womas that is killing them in the homogenous form, and it isn't due to another gene that is being expressed through the line).

[Oxylepy]

I should have checked beforehand, I always think Huntingtons is recessive, but it's dominant. In which case your own comparison of the Pearl to Huntingtons is wrong. If it is in fact caused by the Woma gene then it's a recessive disorder, not a dominant one.

There is still a chance that the fatal part of the Pearl is caused through genes that have presented themselves through line breeding and we just haven't been able to get the two separated (they could be close to eachother on the same chromosome and thus may never have crossed over), in which case breeding the line out would be effective at producing a Pearl that would thrive. However it is possible that the Woma gene itself is what is causing this issue, in which case the two will never be bred out.

[mainbutter]

However it is possible that the Woma gene itself is what is causing this issue, in which case the two will never be bred out.

I believe this is the case, but we can never know for sure.

[J.Vandegrift]

I wondered at the time what made NERD think that the lesser made the pearl stronger. As mentioned above, it makes no sense at all genetically.

[Serpent_Nirvana]

There is still a chance that the fatal part of the Pearl is caused through genes that have presented themselves through line breeding and we just haven't been able to get the two separated (they could be close to eachother on the same chromosome and thus may never have crossed over), in which case breeding the line out would be effective at producing a Pearl that would thrive. However it is possible that the Woma gene itself is what is causing this issue, in which case the two will never be bred out.

And, from all that I have read, all of the pearls have been created from breeding "HG woma" x "HG woma," which, as we all know, is totally different from the majority of "womas" floating around out there in most collections.

So, if indeed the lethality of the pearl is due to a linked gene, and not the "woma" appearance itself, if the homozygous "regular" woma produced something cool like the pearl, that animal may have a chance of surviving ... Unfortunately, given that the "regular" woma doesn't do the cool stuff when combined with other morphs in its heterozygous form, I tend to doubt that it would have any kind of weirdo homozygous form like the "HG woma" does. (Although then again it might ... There are a lot of mutations that seem to make funky, white/silver/gray snakes when in homozygous form or combined with other things.)

But you never know ... Has anyone tried breeding "regular woma" x "regular woma" in awhile? Any plans to?

[eyegotballs]

If the pearl cannot survive on its own, combining it with any other morph won't "fix" it.

An analogy: You can't "fix" huntingtons, for example, by adding dwarfism or red hair

Why did you chose huntingtons? Just wondering.