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Hypolmelanism

D

Dark reaction

New member
Hi, I know most of the corn snake colours, but I have never understood, what is Hypomelanism?

could some one please clear this up for me?
 
hypo is reduced black pigment around the saddles and on belly checkers. there's quite a bit of variation,so i'd look for some pictures. :)
 
Hypo means under, lower, less than.
Melanin is the dark pigment in corns (and ourselves and most lifeforms)
ism is a suffix meaning "a condition of."

So hypomelanism in the generic sense is the condition of having a lower than typical amount of melanin.

In corns, the word is specifically applied to a recessive gene that causes such a condition. (It is also possible to selectively breed corns for a lighter appearance, but this is not what "hypo" is applied to.)

Since the hypo gene is recessive, an individual must inherit it from both parents (and thus be homozygous for it) in order for it to be expressed. When that is the case, the snake is considered a hypo in the "proper" sense of the word.
 
i'd also better add that it's a gene, and that you can't say a normal corn with only a little bit of black is a hypo. it has to have the hypo gene, which you can prove it has this gene by breeding it to another known hypo. :)
 
Here are some pics to illustrate the difference that the hypo gene makes when it is expressed.


<IMG SRC=http://www.cccorns.com/Hatchlings/2006-03-02.jpg>

Normal versus Hypo, clutchmates.

<IMG SRC=http://www.cccorns.com/Hatchlings/2006-03-07.jpg>

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<IMG SRC=http://www.cccorns.com/Hatchlings/2006-17-03.jpg>

Charcoal vs Hypo Charcoal, clutchmates.

<IMG SRC=http://www.cccorns.com/Hatchlings/2006-17-01.jpg>
 
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