Quote Originally Posted by AntTheDestroyer View Post
I would suggest you take more classes. You, again are using an oversimplification of genetics. A "super spider" does not have to exist. You are assuming that genes can only exist in pairs which is simply not true. The spider gene when combined could have a deleterious effect leaving only a single copy of the gene. The animal would pass on its genes as a homozygote but would not be one. Genes, while usually found in pairs, can also exist as singles and even triples. I am not even saying that the spider gene is not lethal just that I am not sure it has been proven to be. The term lethal gene is a bit ambiguous in itself because at what point of development do they die? There seems to be a lot of different information on this. Sure we can speculate, but we have to realize it is nothing more than speculation.

The human genome consists of around 20000 genes, as a benchmark, and you think it is possible that there is a single gene that codes for color pattern and what ever other unseen affect the cinnamon phenotype presents? Even my example of a gene coding for pattern or color is an oversimplification, just more correct than a single gene responsible for the phenotype of a morph. Now these genes may be passed on together no the same chromosome, but they are not the same gene.
I'd be very interested to learn your background. I apologize for my inflammatory comment if my information was incorrect in any way, as I said I'm no geneticist that is simply my understanding.

I'll give you the fact that these alleles can exist in singular copies due to deleterious effects however I'm not sure I'd be willing to give you the rest of that. I'm not aware of any instances in which alleles exist in triplicate. Due to the structure of DNA it does not make sense to me how this would work. Can you cite your example? I'm genuinely interested in how that might work.

It seems odd that the inhertence patterns would be as such if the mutation was due to an alteration of multiple genes. What you're suggesting is that due to the close proximity of these genes on the chromosome they are always or almost always passed on together right? I suppose this is possible, if this is the case I'd be interested to see what would happen if recombinace occurred and one of these genes were lost. Would we then be able to isolate specific traits of the "genes" in ball pythons? I'm rather interested to hear what you think is going on here however this is really far away from the intended discussion. If I didn't offend you and you care to explain I'd love to hear a pm about it.