Sex and City.. Err Snake.  Sex Linking and Coral Glow Gene.

By now you should be aware that the Coral Glow/Banana Gene throws weird sex ratios.  To fully understand this I am going to explain a bit of the history of the gene.  *And in the process open a can of worms that many now argue.   Read more about this here.

History: To set the ground work. The Coral Glow (White Smoke) and Banana projects started with imported animals from Africa.  Will Slough imported a Female ball python and he named the project Banana.  Kevin McCurley imported a female from Africa and he named his project White Smoke Albino. The name was later changed to Coral Glow.  Will hasn’t spoken much on the subject, but Kevin has spoken on it quite a bit.

White Smoke Albino/Coral Glow:  When Kevin McCurley (N.E.R.D) was breeding his White Smoke female  he got the normal ratio of males and females.  When he paired the males (F1)  that were produced from that original female he started to notice some odd sex ratios.  Anything that was produced from a F1 Male White Smoke pairing that carried the White Smoke/Coral Glow gene was female and anything without the gene was male.  Obviously early on there was a limited of pairings early on it so it took a while to notice the pattern and attribute it to anything besides odd luck.

Banana: Not much is known on the other side of the equation since Will Slough hasn’t spoken about it as much. We know Brock Wagner bought into the Banana Project early on.  Brock Wagner’s original Banana (Will Slough’s line) was a female.  When she finally produced a clutch for him he held back a male (F1) to use in his projects. He also was noticing that anything produced from that male (F1) that carried the Banana Gene was female and those without it were male.

Editors note: Having seen early samples of the White Smoke aka Coral Glow and Banana when they were still traceable to their import bloodlines. I will say: at that time you could see a visual difference between the genes. Ball Pythons from the Banana line tended to be more yellow in color.  Coral Glows tended to have more Purple and Whitish highlights to their composition.  It may have been just the natural variations in quality of the animals in question. But a few breeders and I did a blind test to see how many of use could correctly identify the “line”.  I’m proud to say I got 13/15 correct.  I wouldn’t attempt that same test now.  And honestly, since many breeders now use the terms Coral Glow and Banana interchangeably I doubt many can trace their stock back to the origin line with 100% confidence.

Punnett Square Coral Glow/Banana Style: Let me see if I can describe this.  If time permits I may try to make a graphic later.

Since most of the Coral Glow/Banana’s available for sale are Male Maker Males.  In other terms, these males will produce males.

Any pairing with a Male Maker Male Coral Glow/Banana:

Male Maker Male (MMM): Typically anything you produce from a pairing with a MMM Coral Glow that inherits the Coral Glow Gene will predominately be MALE.  Everything without the Coral Glow Gene will predominately be FEMALE. The numbers commonly repeated in the hobby are 90%-96%. That means that 90%-96% of the offspring with Coral Glow will be Male. That gives you a 4%-10% chance of a Female Coral Glow when you use a Male Maker Male Coral Glow.

Note: I said PREDOMINATELY.  This is because nature has a way of messing with the odds.  Breeders have tossed around 4%-10% as the odds of producing a female Coral Glow from a MMM. You may also occasionally throw a Male non-Coral Glow from MMM pairing.

In the 2015 Season I produced 39/40 males from a Coral Glow Yellow Belly MMM. I only had a single female (normal/wild type) from 40 eggs. I wish I could say that I had 39 Coral Glow combos, but that wasn’t the case I did very well on Coral Glow Combos but even the non-coral glow combos were male.  Mother Nature definitely threw a monkey wrench at my production that season.  2015 was the first season for that male, and I am only doing 1 pairing with him in 2016.  It may have just been super bad odds for me, or something in that particular male. I shared what I experienced with several bigger breeders. And none of them had ever seen anything like that in any of their Coral Glow Projects. Either way I’m only doing a test pairing with that male this season to see what is produced.

Slide 1 of Coral Glow Genetics

Coral Glow Genetics

Female Maker Male (FMM): As of this article (2016) FMM’s are more rare and difficult to find.  A FFM happens when you pair a Female Coral Glow to anything.  Female Coral Glows produce the normal ratio of Males/Females. This means that you will have Female and Male Coral Glows, as well as Female and Male non-Coral Glows.  The difference is that any MALE Coral Glow combos produced from a Female Coral Glow will be a Female Maker Male.

In otherwords a FMM will predominately produce Female Coral Glow’s.  And any non-Coral Glow’s produced from a FFM Coral Glow will be male.

Female Maker Male Slide 1

Swapping in Female Maker Males:  The rare Male Coral Glow/Banana that is born from a Female Maker Male (remember 90%-96% of the CG/Bananas SHOULD be Female) will be a MALE MAKER MALE.

Female Maker Male Swap

Female Coral Glow/Banana:  Female Coral Glow/Bananas are starting to become more common in the hobby. Here at Genetic Dreams we have several female combos growing up and a few Female Maker Male combos already in our breeding programs.

Female Coral Glow/Bananas will produce the normal sex ratios of any other gene in the ball python realm. BUT with the added caveat- ANY MALE carrying the Coral Glow/Banana Gene produced by a Female Coral Glow/Banana will be a Female Maker Male. This means as you saw above that male will produce Female Coral Glow/Bananas.

.

Female Coral Glow Genetics

Deeper Genetics: If you got this far then you may want to sit down for this part. This is where we really go into the rabbit hole. As if the Coral Glow/Banana gene story wasn’t interesting enough in 2017 some breeders started to report that deeper generations (F5+) Males produced from Male Maker Males have been flipping the sex linked ratio.

Genetically those males SHOULD be Male Maker Males and produce 90%-96% Male Coral Glow/Bananas. But they have been acting like Female Maker Males and producing Female Coral Glow/Bananas. I put F5+ but the truth is there is not enough hard data to know what generation the “flip” is happening at.

In the Genetics/Biology Realm they use the term P, F1, F2, F3, F4, F5. A laypersons explanation is:

P = Parent
F1 = First Filial Generation
F2= Second Filial Generation
Filial Generation = The Filial Generation comprised of offspring(s) resulting from a cross between two individual from parental generation.

Super Banana/Coral Glow:  Super Coral Glow/Bananas (the result of pairing a Coral Glow/Banana x Coral Glow/Banana) should act as a female Coral Glow/Banana in the sense that they throw even/normal sex ratios to any other gene we have in the Ball Python Hobby.

Note: There isn’t enough data on pairing Male Maker Males vs Female Maker Males to Females to break out how the different variables would work.   I am personally working with both Male Maker Males and Female Maker Males here. But my planned pairings for the upcoming season that can result in Super Coral Glow/Banana’s will likely be Male Maker Males x Female Coral Glow/Banana.