Hi all I have a question on the Banana male maker gene. If you have a male banana ( male maker), if you breed this snake does the high/ all male gene follow the banana line specifically or is every baby produced by that snake affected by the gene.
example- mojave banana( malemaker) male bred to a ghi female. Have a clutch of 7. 1 ghi banana, 2 banana, 2ghi mojave, 2 normal. Will the ghi mojaves and the normals all be male as well or will it be normal ratios
It should be normal ratios because banana is a sex-linked mutation which means it will cause different male or female ratios but shouldn’t affect the other morphs.
A male maker banana will mostly make male bananas and mostly female non bananas. So in your example the ghi mojaves and normals would mostly be female.
I don’t exactly understand what your asking, but I had asked similar question in the past and nobody told me what I really wanted to know.
Basically on a male maker the banana gene is stuck to the x chromosome, so nearly every time it passes on a male chromosome it passes the banana gene with it.
For example, lets say a textbook clutch of 8 was produced from a male maker, 4 Males & 4 Females, All the Bananas would be males; all males would be bananas. All normals would be females; all females would be normals. You would have 4 banana males and 4 normal females.
This is however not always the case, some people with large collections produce female bananas and normal males from male makers every season, some claim that their male makers throw female bananas 1-2% of the time, while others have been using male makers for years and have yet to produce a single female banana.
What did you want to know?
Y chromosome
There is a small chance for crossover, where the banana gene will go on the x chromosome. making a banana female. thats why female bananas make female maker males. the banana gene is on the X chromosome on those males.
So let me get this straight, the Banana gene is on the Y chromosome so that somehow increases the chances that the offspring will inherit either Banana or the Y chromosome (making them male) and the other comes along with it
Males have XY chromosomes, females are XX and the male determines the sex of the offspring by passing on either an X or a Y.
In a male maker banana, the mutation/variant that causes the banana phenotype is on the Y chromosome and as a result will be passed down to any male offspring.
In a female maker banana, the mutation/variant that causes the banana phenotype is on the X chromosome ad will be passed down to any female offspring.
Sometimes chromosomes will “cross over” and exchange genetic information, which is when you have the occasional incident where a male maker will produce a female banana or vice versa
Thank you all for your input.
So from the sounds of things a clutch from a male maker banana will have a normal female to male ratio,however most,( but only), of the males will carry over the banana gene.
Fascinating, informative, and logical
Makes sense except I have one more question: How does this increase the chances of males being produced or am I getting this wrong and a higher ratio of males are not being produced?
You should still (theoretically) get an equal number of males and females from the clutch, the main difference is just who inherits the banana
Just to make sure this is perfectly clear - there is only ONE gene at play in Bananas/Coral Glows and that is the gene that causes the colour change phenotype. There is no second gene that acts on the gender of the animal
Its been 5 years since this was updated, but i have a few questions. First off, i fully understand how the banana gene works. Last year i purchased a male Banana that came from a Banana sire. I am told that the sire has produced both female and male bananas. I understand the gene can swap at a low % chance, but is it possible to figure out which chromosome the gene could be on with my male? If my male got the X chromosome from mom and the Y from dad, is it more likely that the gene jumped from Dad’s X to the Y, or Jumped from his X to the mom’s X? Im thinking the former. I will know soon enough since i should have eggs sired by him on the way, but i am curious if anyone has any experience in this subject?
You just have to trace the chromosomes. Your male inherited his Y chromosome from his father (banana) and X from the mother, so unless the mother is also banana, it’s on the Y chromosome.
This type of recombination occurs mainly during meiosis, so any female bananas produced by your male’s sire probably acquired the trait back during gamete production.
So if my male’s sire jumps to the x chromosome half the time, do you think my male would do something similar, or is my male’s sire some kind of anomaly and i could expect my male to be a male maker?
Could the male’s sire be a super banana that produced all bananas (both male and female)? I’ve heard 15% thrown out as the crossover percentage for banana. I would be very surprised to hear of a male single copy banana throwing 50% so wondering if we’re missing something like he was homozygous banana with a copy on both his X and Y.
The guy i got him from swears the sire isnt a super banana that he does produce non bananas with him. I agree it just doesnt sound right a single copy male producing 50% crossover. I have one pairing with my male baby from the sire in question so ill find out soon enough. i just wanted to share what was going on since i find it very strange.
You are misunderstanding the fundamentals of genetics here. Nothing is “jumping” anywhere. The low-frequency change of inheritance is the result of a perfectly normal and well known and characterized genetic phenomenon known as ‘crossing over’. Cross over is an sort of inbuilt mechanism for generating genetic diversity. And, with almost everything when it comes to genetics, it is about statistics overall and not one frozen moment in time. Statistically, the inheritance of a dominant gene is 50% but that does not change the fact that single observed clutches can show 100% or 75% or 0% inheritance
I understand what you’re saying completely. And i know you cant come to any conclusions from a small sample size (ie only a few clutches). What i am saying here is i find it strange that in the few clutches the sire in question has produced, the rate of cross over has been close to 50%, when it was accepted that typical crossover rates are about 3%. I just find that very unusual to be so far outside of the normal rate, but also so close to 50% being the rate of inheritance of a dominant gene. Its almost as if the banana phenotype inheritance is not dependent on the sex chromosome for inheritance with this particular sire…which is unlikely, but still fun to think about. Im excited to see what my male produces.