Jargon Explanations

Albino: lacking melanin (same as amelanistic)

Allele: either of the two paired genes which affect an inheritable trait.

Amelanistic: lacking melanin (same as albino)

Anerythristic: lacking red color.

Axanthic: lacking yellow color.

Codominant: a gene that causes the homozygous form to look different than the wild-type and the heterozygous form to have traits of both.

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid): molecules bearing genetic information of all living cells. Gene. Also referred to as “unit of inheritance.”

Dominant: a gene that causes an animal to look different than the wild-type and where the homozygous form and the heterozygous form look the same as each other.

Dominant Recessive: a gene that causes an animal to look different than the wild type and also has a “super form” which when breeding two of the same Dominant Recessive traits together will produce another genetic “morph”

Double Heterozygous: being heterozygous for two different traits.

Gene: unit of heredity that determines the characteristics of the offspring.

Genetics: the study of heredity.

Genotype: an organism’s genetic composition. Heredity – the transmission of genetic characters from parents to offspring.

Het: an abbreviation for heterozygous.

Heterozygous: possessing two different genes for a given trait. An animal with one mutated, recessive gene still appears normal; its mutated gene can be inherited by future offspring. A codominant animal is heterozygous for the dominant form of its mutated gene, yet is different in appearance than both the wild-type and homozygous forms.

Homozygous: a state in which both genes for a specific trait are the same. When a recessive gene is it its homozygous form, it makes the animal look different from the wild-type. When a dominant gene is in its homozygous state, it causes the animal to look different from both the wild-type and the heterozygous (codominant) forms.

Hypomelanistic: an animal having less black and/or brown color than a wild-type.

Leucistic: a solid white animal with dark eyes.

Locus: a gene’s position on a chromosome (plural: loci)

Melanin: black or brown skin pigments.

Melanistic: abnormally dark, especially due to an increase of melanin.

Mutation: an abnormal gene that under certain circumstances can cause an animal to be born with an appearance other than wild-type.

Normal: an animal with no mutated genes – “wild type” in appearance. (See wild type)

Phenotype: an animal’s external apperance, as caused by its genotype.

Possible Het: an animal from a known breeding that has either a 50% or 66% possibility of being “heterozygous” for a mutant gene.

A 66% possible het comes from breeding 2 heterozygous animals together: 50% of the offspring will be heterozygous, 25% will be homozygous, and 25% will be wild-type. Of the normal appearing animals, 66% (roughly 2 out of 3) will actually be heterozygous for the mutated gene.

example: breed het to albino to het 2 albino and you get 8 eggs, statiscally 2 of the offspring should be albino, 2 of the babies will be normal, and 4 of the babies will be het albino, you won’t be able to tell the difference between the normals and hets, thus making 66% poss hets.

A 50% possible het comes from breeding a heterozygous animal to a wild-type animal. All of the resulting offspring will be wild-type in appearance, but 50% of them will actually be heterozygous for the mutated gene and must be bred out to determine which animals are really hets.

example: 100% het Albino bred to Normal Wild Type, if 8 offspring are produced, 4 will be het albino, and 4 will be normal wild type. However, you won’t be able to determine by looking at them so they will have to be bred back to another het albino or albino to prove them out.

Recessive: a gene that affects an animal’s appearance if it’s present in the homozygous state. A heterozygous animal carrying a mutated, recessive gene looks normal.

Super: (same as dominant) herp term for the dominant form of a codominant mutation and will produce “visual hets”.

Tyrosinase: an enzyme required for synthesizing melanin.

Tyrosinase-negative: an albino whose cells lack tyrosinase, producing a white and yellow/orange animal with pink eyes. A separate albino mutation from tyrosinase-positive. Also called T- .

Tyrosinase-positive: an albino not able to synthesize melanin, but capable of synthesizing tyrosinase, which results in lavender-brown skin color. Also referred to as T+ .

Visual hets: herp term for dominat recessive

Wild Type: the way the animal usually looks in nature

Xanthic: having more yellow color than wild-type.