Ultramel

[Chris Steele]

Can someone explain what exactly ultramel is?

 

[Kat]

The short answer is an ultramel is a cornsnake that's het for the ultra hypo gene and for the amel gene. Since ultra and amel are codominant, the resulting critter looks halfway between hypo and amel.

-Kat

 

[Serpwidgets]

The albino locus in corns has three alleles:
1- A⁺ = the wild-type or normal allele, which allows the snake to produce the normal amount of melanin.
2- a^a = the amel mutant, which is apparently non-functional.
3- a^u = the the ultra mutant, which is apparently partially functional. (let's say it allows the snake to produce 25% of the normal amount of melanin)

Each cornsnake inherits one of these three alleles from its mother, and one of these three alleles from its father. (Which allele(s) can be inherited depends on which one(s) are being carried by each parent.)

When a snake is carrying either one or two copies of the wild-type allele (normal/normal, normal/amel, or normal/ultra) it produces as much melanin as any other normal.

When a snake is carrying two copies of the amel allele (amel/amel) it cannot produce any melanin, and thus it's amelanistic.

When a snake is carrying two copies of the ultra allele (ultra/ultra) it can produce (25% X 2 = 50%) of the normal amount of melanin and will appear hypomelanistic.

When a snake is carrying one copy of the amel allele, and one copy of the ultra allele (ultra/amel, or "ultramel") it can produce only (25%) half as much of the normal amount of melanin as an ultra. These snakes are heterozygous, do not possess a wild-type allele at the albino locus, and pass either the amel allele OR the ultra allele to any one of their offspring.

 

[franklin]

ultra corns

The albino locus in corns has three alleles:
1- A⁺ = the wild-type or normal allele, which allows the snake to produce the normal amount of melanin.
2- a^a = the amel mutant, which is apparently non-functional.
3- a^u = the the ultra mutant, which is apparently partially functional. (let's say it allows the snake to produce 25% of the normal amount of melanin)

Each cornsnake inherits one of these three alleles from its mother, and one of these three alleles from its father. (Which allele(s) can be inherited depends on which one(s) are being carried by each parent.)

When a snake is carrying either one or two copies of the wild-type allele (normal/normal, normal/amel, or normal/ultra) it produces as much melanin as any other normal.
?
When a snake is carrying two copies of the amel allele (amel/amel) it cannot produce any melanin, and thus it's amelanistic.

When a snake is carrying two copies of the ultra allele (ultra/ultra) it can produce (25% X 2 = 50%) of the normal amount of melanin and will appear hypomelanistic.

When a snake is carrying one copy of the amel allele, and one copy of the ultra allele (ultra/amel, or "ultramel") it can produce only (25%) half as much of the normal amount of melanin as an ultra. These snakes are heterozygous, do not possess a wild-type allele at the albino locus, and pass either the amel allele OR the ultra allele to any one of their offspring.

will hypoX amel sometimes produce ultras

 

[Serpwidgets]

Ultras and ultramels are the result of mutants at the albino locus and have nothing to do with the hypo locus, just like anery has nothing to do with charcoal.

As far as crossing a regular hypoA (homozygous normal at the albino locus) to a regular amel (homozygous normal at the hypo locus) the answer is no, you won't get ultras, any more than you would get anerys by crossing an anery to a charcoal. The cross you're describing would be:
h^h·h^h, A⁺·A⁺
X
H⁺·H⁺, a^a·a^a

and would produce: (Normals het amel and hypo)
H⁺·h^h, A⁺·a^a

An ultra is:
H⁺·H⁺, a^u·a^u

And an ultramel is:
H⁺·H⁺, a^a·a^u

As you can see, there's no way the two above parents could create either of those offspring.