# Quick question



## claire_e_dodd (Sep 18, 2007)

Ok, so I think i'm getting the hang of this genes malarky now, but only on the basics.

Using the popular analogy of a twin seat on a train, I understand that each offspring has the potential for four different genes, (two from father and two from mother) but only one from each get's to 'sit down' on the seat.

Therefore from an Anery A male, and Amel female you could get;

An, An = Anery A
A, A = Amel
A, An = Snow

However, as much as this 'twin seat' analogy works, I don't understand how corns can be visual for 3 or more genes, i.e. Avalanche, where has the extra seat come from? Or does one gene sit on the other's knee lol.

Also, how can a snake be het for more than two morphs. I always imagined hets as the genes sitting in the next row back. They're there, but not 'seen'.

Can anyone explain?


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## toyah (Aug 24, 2006)

> Using the popular analogy of a twin seat on a train, I understand that each offspring has the potential for four different genes, (two from father and two from mother) but only one from each get's to 'sit down' on the seat.
> 
> However, as much as this 'twin seat' analogy works, I don't understand how corns can be visual for 3 or more genes, i.e. Avalanche, where has the extra seat come from? Or does one gene sit on the other's knee lol.


I must admit to have never having heard this particular method of explaining it! I guess the best way I can try to explain it using this analogy ... only two of the four get to sit down on that particular seat, but there's not just the one pair of seats, there's an entire train. Each set of genes has tickets for a different seat on the train, so you have the same fight for each pair of seats going on up and down the carriage.

Does that make sense?


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

You've not got it quite right.

Each gene has its *own* pair.... EVERY animal has hundreds or THOUSANDS of possible twin seats on the train. Each offspring gets *half *of those seats filled by Mum and the *other half* of the seats filled by Dad.

So you might have one pair of seats belonging to the Anery/Not Anery family (which can contain EE - not anery, not het either * Ee, which is not visually anery but carries it * ee - visual anery), but the next pair of seats belongs to the Amel/Ultra/Not-Amel-Or-Ultra family. The next pair down might belong to the Motley/Stripe/Not-Motley-or-Stripe family.

For example, if I say I have a Stripe het amel, charcoal, bloodred, hypo, sunkissed, anery and caramel, his genetics would be represented by a whole long STRING of letters, each in their own pairs.

Your Amel male crossed to an Anery female would produce:

Aa Ee (het for snow) 

Unless the Amel carries Anery and/or the Anery carries Amel, you wouldn't expect anything else.


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## toyah (Aug 24, 2006)

claire_e_dodd said:


> An, An = Anery A
> A, A = Amel
> A, An = Snow


That isn't quite right. You always need two copies of any recessive gene. Snow being anery plus amel means you need to have two copies of the amel gene PLUS two copies of the anery gene.

So you have one pair of seats where the amel genes sit, and another pair of seats where the anery genes sit. You only get snow if there's two amels sitting in the amel row, and two aneries sitting in the anery row.

A better way of representing what you wrote above would be:

Anery A = aa C-
Amel = A- cc
Snow = aa cc

That us using "a" for anery, "c" for amel, "A" for non-anery, and "C" for non-amel. The "-" just means either, it shows that it doesn't matter if you have one or other option in that place.


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## claire_e_dodd (Sep 18, 2007)

Right that's so much easier to understand, I totally get now.

So on the train (lol) the seats are kinda 'reserved', there are two seats available for each gene, but if only one of the seats is filled, you are het, both seats must be filled for a visual morph?


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

Every seat on the train is ALWAYS filled - it's just what it's filled WITH.

For example, on the seats reserved for the Anery Family, each seat can hold either "Anery" or "Not Anery". "Not Anery" is still a gene, and it still takes up a space - it's the gene that has the code to produce red pigment in it.


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## claire_e_dodd (Sep 18, 2007)

Oh yeah I get that, so going by morphs, would the seats not occupied by the appropriate morph be occupied by 'normal' genes?


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## toyah (Aug 24, 2006)

That's right


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## claire_e_dodd (Sep 18, 2007)

Wuhoo


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

claire_e_dodd said:


> Oh yeah I get that, so going by morphs, would the seats not occupied by the appropriate morph be occupied by 'normal' genes?


Though keep in mind that you're going to have lots and lots of "normal" genes even in a snake that is a visual morph. Which is why I prefer to say "not-mutant" instead of "normal"... because you don't necessarily get a normal-looking snake if you've got one "normal" gene in a pair.

For example, a visual Amelanistic has at least one "not-Anery" sitting in *that* pair of train seats (and two "Amelanistics" sitting in the Amel Family pair) ... but it's not a visual normal


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## claire_e_dodd (Sep 18, 2007)

Yeah I get that


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