Genetic Testing

I started breeding about 2 yrs ago and this is something that’s been always crossing my mind , has anybody tried testing the genetics of their snakes , i mean like DNA testing , i just see a lot of morphs coming out all the time and i wonder if they are actually new genes , how the breeders are so sure that they have a new gene or who approves of the new gene , people claim to have a new gene and they put it out on the market at crazy prices but who actually verifies they have something new and no just something basic ?

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DNA testing is a real thing, even with reptiles, though it is costly.

Here is a link to that topic.

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Thanks Eagle for transposing my previous into here, saves my fingers :slight_smile: :+1:t3:

Al,

Aside from the above, with what you are talking about it is more based on breeding out animals with some kind of phenotype and seeing if it is an actual heritable trait. Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. As far as it being something new versus something basic… There is a long discussion there and you can certainly pick your side of the argument depending on how you feel. As an example of how it can be - there are no fewer than five independently imported lines of BlkPastel but everyone seems pretty happy to call all of them BlkPastel. Flipside, we have Banana and CoralGlow which were imported independently by two different people that were not each aware of the other until after the fact so one called it one thing and the other called it something different to keep them “personal” projects. Other flipside, there are Fires and Sulfurs and Embers and Motas and Bright and Flame and DesertLemons and Lemonbacks and Lucifers and I am sure I am forgetting a couple that all make a superform that is a black-eyed leucistic and even though many of them were “discovered” after the initial Fire lineage was well established, we call them all different things because… Some sort of reason… :man_shrugging:t4:

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