Been thinking about this thread all week and it just makes me realize how little we know about ball python genes in general. We know how to express colors and patterns, but there is so much more to learn.
Ethics aside for now, this is really just a musing - it would be such a valuable experiment to see what exactly these wobble genes do (in spiders, womas, champagne, etc). especially in the "fatal" combos. The why's of the genes, not just the observable side.
Of course it would require someone dedicate their time to a collection of breeding adults of these morphs in enough numbers to have a good sample size, breed them, incubate eggs that may not ever produce viable young, and have access/assistance from both an embryologist and a genealogist that specialize in reptile development. The failed embryos would have to be necropsied and compared to healthy embryos in the same developmental stage to discover if they were progressing at the correct rate and with the correct parts. I have no idea how much that would all cost lol -
Maybe the gene that causes 'super spiders' to fail is linked to heart or liver/kidney development, maybe the wobble itself is not a gene at all but is a side effect of a gene that prevents correct myelin sheath formation/function? Maybe all of these genes that cause the combos to fail have something developmental that causes the eggs to be slugs in the first place. If the spider gene occupies the same place in the sequence as the champagne gene, maybe there's something else on that sequence that is key to survival. There would just be so much to discover.
This is just the scientific side of my brain wondering about stuff too complex for me to really understand. Also, man what a depressing and time consuming experiment that would be...I have no idea what producing non-viable eggs over time can do to a female, but I assume any egg production is hard on their bodies.
No cage is too large - nature is the best template - a snoot can't be booped too much
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