Spider morph questions

[paulh]

Great thank you all! I knew about the killer bee not producing any normals but didn't know if that was the only one.. So what makes a super? Is it just pastels?

Genes come in pairs, like socks. A super has two copies of a dominant or codominant mutant gene in one of its gene pairs.

All mutant genes are dominant, codominant, or recessive to the corresponding normal gene. A normal gene is the most common gene in a given location in a cell's chromosomes in the snakes in the wild. All genes that are not normal genes are mutant genes.

A recessive mutant gene only produces its abnormal effect on the snake's appearance when there are two copies of the gene in the gene pair.
A dominant mutant gene produces the same abnormal effect on the snake's appearance when there are two copies of the mutant gene in the gene pair and when there is a mutant gene paired with a normal gene.
A codominant mutant gene produces one abnormal effect on the snake's appearance when there are two copies of the mutant gene in the gene pair and a more or less different abnormal appearance when there is a mutant gene paired with a normal gene.

The father gives one gene from each of its gene pairs to each sperm. The mother gives one gene from each of its gene pairs to each egg. When the sperm and egg fuse, the gene pairs are reestablished in the baby.

If one parent is normal, then it has two copies of the normal gene in each gene pair. Every baby gets a normal gene from this normal parent.

If the other parent has two copies of a recessive gene in the gene pair, then it gives that recessive gene to each baby. All the babies have a recessive mutant gene paired with a normal gene. All the babies look normal.

If the other parent has a dominant or codominant mutant gene paired with a normal gene, then half the babies get a mutant gene and half the babies get a normal gene. All the babies with two normal genes look normal. The babies with a dominant or codominant mutant gene paired with a normal gene do not look normal.

If the other parent has two copies of a dominant or codominant gene in the gene pair, then it gives that gene to each baby. All the babies have a dominant or codominant mutant gene paired with a normal gene. None of the babies look normal.

You do not want normal babies from a mating that has one normal parent. The only way to do that is to have two dominant or codominant genes in one of the other parent's gene pairs.

Clear as mud?

As Daigga wrote, go to the World of Ball Pythons morph page (http://www.worldofballpythons.com/morphs/). Under the Filters menu at the left side of the page, click on buttons to give an alphabetic list showing the basic morphs. Click on each one and make a list of the ones that are marked either dominant or codominant. You can use the super of any of them. There are only 272 to check, so it shouldn't take long.