Question about heterozygous

[Hankj]

I jump on here and just love to look at pictures and questions about morphs and make my own guess in my head and then see what you guys say. I have noticed that sometimes you say something like "That's a Tangerine het for tremper"

Now my question is how can you tell something is het for something by just looking at it? I thought het meant it didn't express the trait, just carried it.

 

[TokayKeeper]

Now my question is how can you tell something is het for something by just looking at it? I thought het meant it didn't express the trait, just carried it.

You can't, at least with leos, and correct...

If I think you're referring to some recent posts, then it's the actual breeder that knows the genetics behind a given pictured gecko whether through its parents or through breeding the animal itself and proving out the genetics.

 

[IslaReina]

Yes, if they posted the parents' morphs, you can tell what they are het for Otherwise, you're right, you can't visually detect a het

 

[Hankj]

Alright cool, that's what I was thinking but I kept seeing "looks like het.." and was confused, thanks!

 

[acpart]

I would guess that the only time you can really say "looks like het" is in the case of some blizzard hets who are more speckled than most other leos, but that's the exception that proves the rule in my opinion.

Aliza

 

[Hankj]

So is there any room for argument that blizzard is codominant or something along those lines? Not truly recessive

 

[RampantReptiles]

Nah...

Co-dominant has to do with the way in which the alleles interact with each other in the phenotype based on genotype (How genes are expressed or how they look). Co-dominant morphs are when you have both dominant and recessive alleles in the genotype that they are 100% both being expressed at the same time. Example... a flower that has the purple and white alleles, so Pw, and so the flowers have both purple and white on the petals.

I suspect (now I am no expert but currently taking a Genetics course) that when a recessive morph like Blizzard is het, so only has one copy, that when it is present that it is interacting with some form of pigment gene that would alter the color or spots?

Also, I thought it was Blizzard hets that make geckos generally lighter in coloration and Bell Albino hets that make geckos more spotty?

 

[RampantReptiles]

Well actually if it is color, could it be Incomplete Dominance with the wild type?

Incomplete Dominance is when both alleles are being expressed but at like a "middle ground". Example flowers (yeah flowers again...) a flower with red and white alleles Rw, incomplete dominance would give us pink flowers, aka a happy medium.

 

[Hankj]

So are potentially arguing that these traits that express when they are only "het" are not not recessive but incomplete dominance or can they be both recessive and incomplete dominance?

 

[acpart]

There used to be a lot of discussion about whether the Mack snow gene was a case of incomplete dominance or co-dominance as is usually assumed. There were some good arguments on both sides and it seems that what is clearly differentiated with flowers is not so clear with geckos. I recently spoke to a biology professor who said that the issue of incomplete/co-dominance is not clear in general. Last year I produced 5 blizzard hets who all had speckling as opposed to spotting, so I also wonder why the blizzard trait isn't considered to be co- (or incomplete) dominant.

Aliza

 

[Hankj]

Yes, that is now my question too.