# Beardie Hets and Hypo's and other Morphs can anyone explain it to me?



## supatips (May 29, 2012)

Hi Everyone 

I got a bearded dragon the other day from a private breeder. I understand the basic stuff like normal, leatherback and silkback but I am trying to make sense of the other stuff and it's making my head spin!

My Dragon is a Hypo 66% Het Translucent Leatherback Dunner. 

I understand the leatherback part as well as the translucent and dunner parts but I can't seem to get my head round the rest of it. I would like to breed him in the future what would all of it mean to any potential offspring?

His parents were both orange Hypo Het Translucent with his father having the leatherback and dunner traits (genes?)

Any explanations to these things would be appriciated. No matter how hard I try to make sense of it I wind up ending more confused :lol2:

Thanks


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## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

First of all, a disclaimer. I have never kept bearded dragons. All I know about their genetics came from material on the web. Such as About Morph Types | Bearded Dragon Source However, the principles are the same for the genetics of corn snakes, mice, maize, bearded dragons, fruit flies, etc. 

Second, traits and genes are not the same thing. Traits are what you can see, Like skin color, number of toes, length of leg, etc. Genes are portions of DNA in the cell nucleus. Genes contain the information that tells the cell machinery what to do to produce a given trait. 


Genes come in pairs. The mother gives each baby one gene from each of her gene pairs. The father gives each baby one gene from each of his gene pairs. This produces gene pairs in each baby.


All gene pairs are either homozygous or heterozygous.
Homozygous = the two genes in the gene pair are the same. Examples – two copies of the normal gene, or two copies of a mutant gene.
Heterozygous = the two genes in a gene pair are NOT the same. Examples-- a mutant gene and the corresponding normal gene, two different mutant genes. "Het" is short for heterozygous.


Most commonly, there are two possible genes that can be arranged in a gene pair – a mutant gene and a normal gene. The normal alternative is the gene most common in the wild population. The mutant gene is a gene that is NOT the most common in the wild population. Take the hypo mutant gene. The first gene in the gene pair is either a hypo mutant gene or a normal gene. The second gene in the gene pair is either a hypo mutant gene or a normal gene. This makes three possible gene pairs:


two normal genes Trait = not hypo = normal.
Two hypo genes. Trait = hypo
A normal gene and a hypo gene (order does not matter). Trait = not hypo = normal.
 

Your Dragon is said to be a Hypo 66% Het Translucent Leatherback Dunner. This means there are four possible gene pairs of interest – a gene pair where the hypo gene resides, one where the translucent gene resides, one where the leatherback gene resides, and one where the Dunner gene resides.

Gene pair #1 = two hypo genes. The hypo mutant is recessive to the corresponding normal gene because a dragon with a normal gene paired with a hypo gene (AKA a het hypo dragon) is not a hypo. Only a dragon with two hypo genes has the hypo trait.

Gene pair #2 = either two normal genes or a normal gene paired with a translucent gene. You don't know without a breeding test. Odds are 1/3 = 33% that there are two normal genes and 2/3 = 66% that there is a normal gene paired with a translucent gene. Do a search for “66% het” in this forum. Translucent is another mutant gene that is recessive to the corresponding normal gene.

Gene pair #3 = A het leatherback has a normal gene paired with a leatherback gene. This pair of genes produces the leatherback trait. Look at your dragon. If it does not have the leatherback trait, then it has a pair of normal genes. As the description says 66% het leatherback, I am inclined to think that your dragon has two normal genes.

Gene pair #4 = A het Dunner has a normal gene paired with a Dunner gene. This pair of genes produces the Dunner trait. Look at your dragon. If it does not have the Dunner trait, then it has a pair of normal genes. As the description says 66% het Dunner, I am inclined to think that your dragon has two normal genes.

Dunner and leatherback genes are codominant to the corresponding normal genes. With codominant mutant genes, you can tell what the genes are from the dragon's appearance. A dragon with two copies of the mutant gene has one appearance (Example-- silkback), a dragon with two copies of the normal gene has a second appearance (normal skin), and a dragon with the mutant gene paired with a normal gene has a third appearance (leatherback). By the way, “codominate” is a misspelling of “codominant”. And "dominate" is a misspelling for "dominant".

Many herpers think that a codominant mutant gene becomes dominant when there are two copies of the codominant gene in the gene pair. This is incorrect. A dominant mutant gene has a genotype/appearance pattern that is the reverse of the recessive mutant gene.

Recessive mutant gene:
Two mutant genes produces the mutant trait.
A mutant gene and a normal gene produces the normal trait.
Two normal genes produces the normal trait.

Dominant mutant gene:
Two mutant genes produces the mutant trait.
A mutant gene and a normal gene produces the same mutant trait.
Two normal genes produces the normal trait.

Codominant mutant gene
Two mutant genes produces the full mutant trait.
A mutant gene and a normal gene produces an abnormal trait that can be distinguished from the abnormal trait produced by two mutant genes.
Two normal genes produces the normal trait.


Genetics is not the easiest subject to master. Keep asking questions and look at the stickies until you get it.


Hope this helps.


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## supatips (May 29, 2012)

Thanks for that.

He is definitely a leatherback and looking at dunners on the net he shares their characteristics. I guess his offspring would be dependent on what he was mated with.


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## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

Cool. So your dragon has the Hypo, Leatherback and Dunner traits and is 66% probability Het Translucent. 

Gene pair #1 = two hypo genes.

Gene pair #2 = either two normal genes or a normal gene paired with a translucent gene. 

Gene pair #3 = a normal gene paired with a leatherback gene.

Gene pair #4 = a normal gene paired with a dunner gene.

This gives a lot of opportunities, depending on what your dragon is mated with.

I would suggest mating yours to a hypo translucent dragon. All the babies would get a hypo gene from the father and a hypo gene from the mother. Meaning that all the babies would be hypos. Mating yours to a hypo translucent would tell you whether yours has two normal genes or a normal gene paired with a translucent gene in gene pair #2. If there are 7 or more non-translucent babies and no translucents, then the odds are 99% that yours has two normal genes. If there is at least one translucent baby, then your dragon has a normal gene paired with a translucent gene. Choosing a hypo het translucent would also test for the translucent gene in your dragon's gene pair #2. But then you'd need at least 17 non-translucent babies and zero translucent babies to reach the 99% mark.

If you want, you can look for a dragon that is also leatherback or dunner (or both). But this is not necessary. A hypo translucent is cheaper and easier to find than a hypo translucent leatherback (and/or dunner), as far as I know. Only one parent is needed to provide the leatherback and dunner genes, and that is the dragon you have now. With a hypo translucent mate, your dragon would to certain to produce babies with the following traits:
hypo
hypo leatherback
hypo dunner
hypo leatherback dunner
And all of them would be het translucent, too.

If your present dragon is het translucent, then the babies would include the four types above and the following types, too.
hypo translucent 
hypo translucent leatherback
hypo translucent dunner
hypo translucent leatherback dunner

Good luck.


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## supatips (May 29, 2012)

paulh said:


> Cool. So your dragon has the Hypo, Leatherback and Dunner traits and is 66% probability Het Translucent.
> 
> Gene pair #1 = two hypo genes.
> 
> ...


Thanks for taking the time to explain that all to me. I appriciate it and am slowly starting to get my head round it a bit more!


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