# How do you know if your herp is homozygous (dom/rec), heterozygous



## Marshmachine (Nov 27, 2008)

Questions in the title, probly been asked lots but im new to this forum and would like to know. How do you know if your herp is homozygous (dom/rec) or heterozygous? i do have a good knowledge of genetics but his has been bugging me for a while, do you have to wait for the offspring to determine what the parentd genetics are or is there a simpler way?

thanks!


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## MrMike (Jun 28, 2008)

Well, parentage goes along way, for example, if one parent is visual for a recessive trait, and the offspring are not visual for that trait, you can be sure the offspring are heterozygous for the trait. Codom trait are easy to spot, as they 2 visual states, with the super form being the homozygous state (usually). Dominant is impossible to tell without test breeding.

Edit: I read your question too fast, so the above you already know :blush:


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## Marshmachine (Nov 27, 2008)

MrMike said:


> Well, parentage goes along way, for example, if one parent is visual for a recessive trait, and the offspring are not visual for that trait, you can be sure the offspring are heterozygous for the trait. Codom trait are easy to spot, as they 2 visual states, with the super form being the homozygous state (usually). Dominant is impossible to tell without test breeding.
> 
> Edit: I read your question too fast, so the above you already know :blush:


dont worry about it *thumbs up* 
im sure it helped someone else


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## Blackecho (Jun 30, 2008)

Marshmachine said:


> How do you know if your herp is homozygous (dom/rec) or heterozygous?


If your recessive is heterozygous you won't see it, if the recessive gene is visual its homozygous.


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

And if you have an animal who carries a dominant trait, the only way to tell if it's het for the trait or homozygous is breeding trials - if you ever get a "non-mutant" offspring pairing your dominant to something else, you know you have a het-mutant; if you get a significant number of offspring that are ALL mutants and NO non-mutants, you may well have a homozygous.

That said, you won't get a homozygous dominant if one parent animal doesn't carry the trait.


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