Pied Genetics?

[mkane2013]

Hello all,

I have read a bunch of different articles but can't seem to figure out exactly how Pied genetics work. If someone could please explain to me, I would be really grateful! My question is this: how is it that a Normal X Pied clutch would yield 100% hets, while a 66% het (or 50%) X Pied would yield some normals? Wouldn't a het X pied make all hets and some visuals, not all 3? Maybe I was just reading articles posted by people who had no idea what they were talking about, lol.

 

[Pasodama]

A simplistic explanation ...

For each locus, a baby will inherit two genes. One from mom and the second one from dad.

Pied is a recessive gene. That means it takes two copies, of the Pied gene, to make a Pied.

With recessive genes ....

Homozygous means that the animal carries two copies of a specific gene and it will show in the animal's phenotype (its physical look).
A homozygous animal will pass that gene along, 100% of the time to each of its individual offspring, because there isn't an option to throw anything else since both genes, at that locus, are the same.

Heterozygous means that an animal carries only one copy, of a specific morph gene, and it typically does not show in the animal's phenotype.
With a het animal, one gene is the morph gene, and the second one is "wild type", at the specific locus. There is a 50/50 chance whether the het parent throws the morph gene, or the "wild type" gene, since it can only be one gene, or the other, that can be passed along. This applies to every single offspring and not the entire clutch.

As far as the 50%, and 66%, they are just the percentage, of liklihood, that an animal may carry that morph gene.

50% possibility is when one parent is normal and the other parent is 100% het. As you see, where het is described, the het parent has a 50/50 chance of throwing the morph gene. That is why there is a 50% possibility that the offspring may be het that morph (until/unless proven to 100% carry the gene via breeding).

66% possibility is when both parents are 100% het. Each parent has a 50/50 chance of throwing the morph gene. This makes the offspring 66% possible het (until/unless proven to 100% carry the gene via breeding).

Hope that makes sense (didn't sleep last night).

....

 

[mkane2013]

Thanks so much, that makes a lot more sense than what I was finding! Go get some sleep, lol

 

[Big Borg Reptiles]

You're right about the het. pied x pied, you would only get visuals and 100% hets. A lot of people have no idea what they're talking about, so unfortunately you have to wade through a lot of garbage to find accurate information.

Deb's info is good though, it's easiest to think in terms of having two slots in each parent and a 50/50 chance as to which "slot" is chosen during breeding. In the case of visual pieds, both slots have the het pied "morph", so there's a 100% chance that's what gets passed on.

Where the 66% comes from is if you have a 100% het to 100% het pairing. From that, there's a 25% the baby is normal, 50% chance it's het. pied (25% chance the female passes the het. pied gene and the male doesn't and 25% chance the male passes the het. pied gene and the female doesn't), and 25% chance it's a visual pied (.5 chance mom passes it AND .5 chance dad passes it; .5 x .5 = .25. Same math as for the hets). Statistically speaking, out of a 4 egg clutch, you would expect one visual pied and 3 "normals". Since you can actually see the visual pieds genetics, you can discount it from the chance of it being het. pied, so you're left with 3 babies and the statistical probability that 2 are 100% het. 2/3 gives you the 66%.

Of course this is all statistical, you could breed 100% het to 100% het and get all normals or all visuals, it just comes down to luck.

Sorry if that made it more confusing, sometimes this stuff can seem overwhelming if you're not used to genetics.