This will sound really dumb if this is already a thing or in the works but here I go lol.
While looking at the RGI tests with Morph testing and sex determination tests I wondered if its possible to make indicator tests for things like follicle production, a “pregnancy” test for reptiles lol.
Just thinking about if its at all possible to test for some kind of hormone marker or something similar in the shed skin whenever a reptile’s body goes through changes to develop eggs.
I don’t have a whole lot of knowledge in the biochemistry behind those kinds of things but it’d be really cool to hear someone’s opinion on this topic that does have broader knowledge of it.
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Most likely would have to be a blood test of some sort because of the processes involved.
Would probably be more of a question for a Chemist and not a Geneticist
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As Christina said, this wouldn’t be something done via shed testing.
Think about how pregnancy testing is done in other species. A blood or urine sample is used to detect specific hormones. While shed cycles do coincide with reproductive cycles, they’re infrequent and would likely be a poor indicator if that kind of testing is even possible. For example, in humans trying to conceive, ovulation monitoring is usually multiple tests over a cycle to identify peak fertility and not just one single point. Currently there’s not much data at all, as far as I know, on hormone levels and their impact in the various phases of snake reproductive cycles. Depending on species, there’s very little comprehensive data on reproduction in general.
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A geneticist would actually be a closer bet than a chemist as the fundamentals of the test are based in molecular biology which is where the field of genetics derived from
That said, Christina and Jess are correct, best bet on this would be a blood test
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Hahah, I just remember sending all of our canine or farm pregnancy tests over to chemistry instead of PCR. So my bad on that!
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That may have just been for higher throughput capacity… Or better haz-waste disposal
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