Thread: Common Terms
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Old 11-27-2009, 01:25 AM   #3
paulh
>het = Heterozygous (contains gene, but not physically showing)
>homo = Homozygous (shows gene)

Incorrect definitions for heterozygous and homozygous, my pet peeve.

Better definitions:
het = heterozygous = the two genes in a gene pair are not the same. By convention, if only one gene is mentioned, then the other gene is a normal gene. IOW, a het amel has a gene pair made up of an amelanistic mutant gene and a normal gene.

homozygous = the two genes in a gene pair are the same.

If homozygous means showing the gene, then a normal-looking snake with a gene pair made up of an amelanistic mutant gene and a normal gene would be homozygous normal.