Genetic Testing

[eaglereptiles]

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

@t_h_wyman

is DNA testing a thing for snakes? Can you tell exactly what genes are present and work out it’s exact morph/heritage or does that need a huge database of sorts to start with?

Yes, DNA testing is a thing for snakes but no, not at the level you are talking about.

Ben Morrill/Reptile Genetic Services offers sexing services from sheds for some species, primarily colubrids.

In theory, it is possible to build up a database like you describe however would be extremely cost-prohibitive. Sequencing in and of itself is pretty cheap these days but fully annotating a genome is no small task and then you have to comparatively analyze the genomes of every known mutation back against the wild-type genome, identify the mutation, which may be as minor as a single “letter” change out of around 1,500,000 “

@t_h_wyman

Do you see this being something that is ever going to be attempted?

I was raised to never say never, but pythons are not exactly an animal that garners a huge amount of scientific interest so it is not likely. Maybe in some not-to-distant future, when genomic sequencing and analysis becomes as cheap/easy/mundane as computers are now, hobbyists can take on the task.
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eaglereptiles:

• Is genetic modification a possibility with them?
• If so, to what extent?

The pedant in me would answer that the acts of selective breeding that we engage in would constitute as “genetic modification”. But I am guessing you are asking more along the lines of exogenous gene transfer and CRISPR and the like? I do not know that anyone has ever tried with snakes but there is no reason that the established methods of genetic engineering should not work, genetics is genetics is genetics. They have successfully used CRISPR to mutate anoles.
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eaglereptiles:

Could we take it too far with morphs to the point it’s just no longer a royal python and needs its own species name? Where no matter what it is bred with, it will not produce a normal wild type looking royal python. Or will there always be that “I’m a python” genome being passed on?

Over geologic time frames, sure we could drift them away from being canonical P. regius the same way we drifted dogs away from wolves. However, consider how long humans have been domesticating dogs and they (mostly) still easily back-breed to wolves. So, to all intents and purposes, they will always be P. regius no matter how morphed out we make them.
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Here is a link to that topic.