De novo mutations in captivity

[Corey Woods]

Reading Corey Woods' story on the "Mutation X," it sounded to me as though it was a true de novo. I could be misreading it, though, and maybe the founder animal is also a "Mutation X," just not easily identified as such.

The "Mutation X" gene is a dominant gene that originated within my breeding group out of an unrelated breeding. Here is the history;

I bred my original Genetic Stripe male to a Het Red Axanthic female 3 years in a row. She produced all 3 years with sizeable clutches. The first 2 years I produced what I expected to produce, Het Red Axanthics het Genetic Stripe and Het Genetic Stripes. Well the 3rd year out popped a different looking baby "mutation X".

Not thinking the "Mutation X" gene was genetic and just a random fluke I only bred him to 4 females in 2010. The only thing I did know about him was that he was a het genetic stripe (since his father was a genetic stripe). So, I bred him to 4 het Genetic Stripe females and 3 of them produced eggs. The first clutch hatched with no Mutation X babies. However, the second and 3 clutch produced 4 mutation X males and one Genetic Stripe mutation X female proving it to be genetic (at this time I didn't know if it was recessive or dominant). The following year (2011) I bred the original male to other, unrelated females proving it to be a dominant mutation.

I have 1 female from 2010 and a few females from 2011 so it'll be a little while until I can prove if it's just a dominant mutation or a Co-Dom one.

Here are some pictures of the original male from 2008

The original breeding Genetic Stripe x Het RA.



Fresh out of the egg baby pics











At a couple months old.



Corey