Apparently I havent rambled enough today so: Here's a thread on genetic mutations or "morphs" in pet snakes and how some of them work!

I wanna start off by saying that while morphs do occur in wild populations, they're usually deleterious to the animal and cause it to die because it's unusual colouring makes it unable to hunt or hide from predators successfully, so it doesnt usually live long enough to reproduce

Not the case with pet snakes! Since they're not in danger of being predated or starving to death, and because us humans love new and shiny things, snakes with unusual colours and patterns thrive in captivity and are usually favoured over normal animals!

Back to 9th Grade Biology Class: we can overarchingly consider genetic mutations to be dominant, recessive, or incomplete dominant (which is called codominant usually in the reptile breeding hobby but that isn't technically the correct term lol)

DOMINANT morphs only require one copy of the mutation to express itself fully. If the animal has one or two copies of the gene it will look the same because it's already fully expressed either way.

Example: the Pinstripe morph in Ball Pythons (left: normal / right: pinstripe)

RECESSIVE morphs require two copies of the gene to be present in order for the animal to express the trait (both parents must pass down the mutation). If the animal only receives one copy of a recessive morph it will look normal.

Example: Albino in pretty much anything lol

INCOMPLETE DOMINANT morphs only require one copy of the gene to show a visible change in the animal, but if two copies are present the mutation is expressed differently. This is commonly called a "super" form.

EXAMPLE: Butter and Super Butter in ball pythons

Some morphs change the snake's pattern, some change the colour, and some affect both!
For example, in reticulated pythons (pic 1), the Motley morph affects pattern (pic 2), and the Platinum morph affects colour (pic 3), and Phantom affects both (pic 4)

SEX-LINKED MUTATIONS are morphs that are coded in the sex chromosomes of the animal. Currently the only one I know is the Banana morph in ball pythons. This morph can occur on either the X or Y chromosome, so a Banana male with a mutated Y can only ever make male banana babies!

Morphs that are ALLELIC are different mutations that occur on the same loci of the chromosomes. There are 2 types of Albinism in retics: Purple and White, and if you cross a white phase albino (pic 1) to a purple phase albino (pic 2) you'll mix the genes and get a LAVENDER phase!

For explanations sake: the phases of albinism have to do with the animal's ability to produce the enzyme Tyrosinase, which helps express melanin. A white albino produces no tyrosinase (T-) and a purple albino does produce it (T+), and the lavender produces a middling amount

"Designer" morphs are when you start getting into snakes that carry multiple different gene combos to make something WILD
1. "Dreamsicle ball python (lavender albino + piebald)
2. "Cow" retic (phantom + orange ghost stripe)
3. "Sun Dragon" boa (kahl albino + blood + hypo)

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