De novo mutations in captivity

[Serpent_Nirvana]

in 1997.
To my knowledge though no codominant/dominant ball python morphs have ever originated in captivity. Sure at some point they all started some how.

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.

[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

[Corey Woods]

Some Mutation X crosses so far;

Genetic Stripe (Left) & Mutation X Genetic Stripe (Right)



Pastel Mutation X



Pastel Mutation X (outside) & Pastel (inside)



Mutation X with a bunch of sibling Genetic Stripes



Pastel Mutation X Genetic Stripe & Mutation X Genetic Stripe



Pastel Het RA Mutation X (left), Pastel Mutation X (right)



Mutation X (left), Het RA (middle) Mutation X Het RA (right)



A really light Mutation X with a normal



Yearling Mutation X



Yearling Genetic Stripe Het RA with Yearling Genetic Stripe Mutation X



Yearling Pastel Mutation X Genetic Stripe.



Regards,
Corey

[TessadasExotics]

Corey,
That is a very interesting and awesome story! Looking forward to seeing more with this project.

[Serpent_Nirvana]

Thanks for posting that, Corey!

Really dig those "mutation X g-stripes" especially!

[Badgemash]

YES. THANK YOU.

(I have a Gene X het pied male. This is already causing me to despair.)

Is that the funnly little dinker guy that I like? He's so cute!