Het DNA

[PythonWallace]

Does anyone know what would be involved, or if it would even be possible to do DNA testing on high priced morphs to find genetic markers that could identify possible hets with certainty? I imagine that if it were possible, it would be too expensive to attempt to run a series of tests on homozygous and heterozygous morphs to figure it out. I was just wondering if this has ever been discussed. I would think that if it were possible and breeders started finding the genetic markings for all the different hets, beside checking all your poss. hets, one could eventually test any wc normal for markers to prove out new lines, and maybe even find het markers for undiscovered recessive morphs.

[Kagez28]

it would cost more then the het was worth. DNA testing is not cheap.

not to mention it would take quite a bit of research, which costs a ton.

[Lokua]

Does anyone know what would be involved, or if it would even be possible to do DNA testing on high priced morphs to find genetic markers that could identify possible hets with certainty? I imagine that if it were possible, it would be too expensive to attempt to run a series of tests on homozygous and heterozygous morphs to figure it out. I was just wondering if this has ever been discussed. I would think that if it were possible and breeders started finding the genetic markings for all the different hets, beside checking all your poss. hets, one could eventually test any wc normal for markers to prove out new lines, and maybe even find het markers for undiscovered recessive morphs.

sure you can do dna tests on any animal or plant. knowing what the hell your looking for is completly diffrent. find out which chromosome the pictular trait you are after is on, and which gene then know which one is which (hetero or homo) and your all set.

having a dna test should not be too expensive, however getting detailed information may be as most testing is just done to match A to B (parent to child or link crimes)

[PythonWallace]

sure you can do dna tests on any animal or plant. knowing what the hell your looking for is completly diffrent. find out which chromosome the pictular trait you are after is on, and which gene then know which one is which (hetero or homo) and your all set.

having a dna test should not be too expensive, however getting detailed information may be as most testing is just done to match A to B (parent to child or link crimes)

Thanks, that is what I meant. It would definately be a long process scanning through DNA of several morphs, normals and hets to find what you are looking for, but I was wondering if it would even be possible, say if one day DNA testing is cheap and readily available.

[Brimstone111888]

One day it could be possible and cheap, but right now it isn't.

In order to tell us a het has the trait or not we would have to discover what the trait looks like under a microscope. Unfortunately you can't just look for the little a's.

It could be done, but it would take a very very long time.

[PythonWallace]

Gotcha. That's what I thought.

[littleindiangirl]

Well now! I think it would be awesome if someone mapped the snake genome (?) It sure as heck would make things easier to understand! Like with rats, they are so studied, and there is a lot of literature on what certain genes and their modifiers do, and what happens when they dont get where they're going and it creates certain colors and patterns when you do this because of that. I think it would clear a lot of stuff up. Just something to chew on.

[jhall1468]

Well now! I think it would be awesome if someone mapped the snake genome (?) It sure as heck would make things easier to understand! Like with rats, they are so studied, and there is a lot of literature on what certain genes and their modifiers do, and what happens when they dont get where they're going and it creates certain colors and patterns when you do this because of that. I think it would clear a lot of stuff up. Just something to chew on.

It took 16 years and $3 billion to finish sequencing the human genome. And nearly 10% of human DNA were never studied (Heterochromatin).

As for a "snake genome" that isn't really possible. Every species has different (sometimes significantly) DNA, so genome mapping would be required for each species. While I'm sure there will be more scientific study of ball pythons in the future, a map of the bp genome isn't forthcoming in our lifetime.

[PythonWallace]

It took 16 years and $3 billion to finish sequencing the human genome. And nearly 10% of human DNA were never studied (Heterochromatin).

As for a "snake genome" that isn't really possible. Every species has different (sometimes significantly) DNA, so genome mapping would be required for each species. While I'm sure there will be more scientific study of ball pythons in the future, a map of the bp genome isn't forthcoming in our lifetime.

This is more of the answer I was looking for. Thanks, Justin.

[jhall1468]

One day it could be possible and cheap, but right now it isn't.

In order to tell us a het has the trait or not we would have to discover what the trait looks like under a microscope. Unfortunately you can't just look for the little a's.

It could be done, but it would take a very very long time.

It won't EVER be cheap, and possible is many years in the future. It's not as simple as looking at it under a microscope. The discovery of a mutant allele requires an incredible amount of research and funding, and that's just the process for determining what causes a very specific trait.

Once that's done, you still have the cost of DNA analysis for each and every snake (and testing can cost thousands of dollars each). At this point in time, trial and error is about the only thing you can do without investing literally tens of thousands of dollars to determine if you have a het albino.