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What does 'het' mean?
- Thread starter Neil
- Start date
Darin Chappell
Very Senior Hillbilly
"Het" is short for heterozygous.
The original Greek word "heteros" means "another of a different kind." The Greek term "homos" means "another of the same kind." So, when a snake is said to be heterozygous (or "het") for something, it means that it has different genetic information in its makeup (genotype) concerning a specific color or pattern consideration.
For example, the wild type of corn has both black and red coloration in its makeup. However, the anerythristic (Greek for no red) snake has two alleles for no red pigment at the locus in the DNA chain that control red coloration. Because these two alleles are the same, the snake is homozygous for anerythrism, and the animal shows anerythrism in its actual coloration (phenotype). An animal that has one allele for anerythrism and another allele for the wild type at the red controlling locus will be heterozygous for anerythrism, because the two alleles at that site are different from one another. Phenotypically, this snake will look like a normal cornsnake, but it is genotypically "het" for anerythrism.
When two animals are both het for the same gene, there is a 25% chance that a particular offspring from that pairing will be normal without any mutation being passed on to it, a 50% chance that only one parent will pass on the mutant gene (making the baby "het" for the same thing as its parents), and a 25% chance that both parents will pass on the mutant gene (making that baby homozygous for the mutation and showing the mutation phenotypically).
That explanation is probably way too detailed for what you were wanting, but I believe it's accurate. Once you get past the Greek terms and brush up on your mendelian genetics a bit, it's really not too difficult.
Hope this helps! -- Darin
The original Greek word "heteros" means "another of a different kind." The Greek term "homos" means "another of the same kind." So, when a snake is said to be heterozygous (or "het") for something, it means that it has different genetic information in its makeup (genotype) concerning a specific color or pattern consideration.
For example, the wild type of corn has both black and red coloration in its makeup. However, the anerythristic (Greek for no red) snake has two alleles for no red pigment at the locus in the DNA chain that control red coloration. Because these two alleles are the same, the snake is homozygous for anerythrism, and the animal shows anerythrism in its actual coloration (phenotype). An animal that has one allele for anerythrism and another allele for the wild type at the red controlling locus will be heterozygous for anerythrism, because the two alleles at that site are different from one another. Phenotypically, this snake will look like a normal cornsnake, but it is genotypically "het" for anerythrism.
When two animals are both het for the same gene, there is a 25% chance that a particular offspring from that pairing will be normal without any mutation being passed on to it, a 50% chance that only one parent will pass on the mutant gene (making the baby "het" for the same thing as its parents), and a 25% chance that both parents will pass on the mutant gene (making that baby homozygous for the mutation and showing the mutation phenotypically).
That explanation is probably way too detailed for what you were wanting, but I believe it's accurate. Once you get past the Greek terms and brush up on your mendelian genetics a bit, it's really not too difficult.
Hope this helps! -- Darin
Serpwidgets
New member
What's an allele? 
So what you're saying is if I take the cubed root of the reciprocal of the circumference and divide by pi, I can determine the natural log of the coefficient of quijybo in base 27?
Hehe, this is why I made my tutorial. Too much needs explaining before you can really define such a simple term as "het" in a way that makes any sense and will be retained.
I'm not tyring to take away from Darrin's explanation, I just don't think it's possible to understand it without first understanding the basics.
So what you're saying is if I take the cubed root of the reciprocal of the circumference and divide by pi, I can determine the natural log of the coefficient of quijybo in base 27?
Hehe, this is why I made my tutorial. Too much needs explaining before you can really define such a simple term as "het" in a way that makes any sense and will be retained.
I'm not tyring to take away from Darrin's explanation, I just don't think it's possible to understand it without first understanding the basics.