Certified DNA/Genetic tests and their locations

Sybilestial

Sybilestial

New member
If anyone knows of any locations of facilities that can do certified dna tests for leopard geckos in America, please let me know. Anywhere near California would be better.

Several reasons to get a gecko tested: Enigma syndrome, exact morphs, if you get it from a pet store, etc. Example; Is the gecko albino? You don't want to mix albinos - including hets- as then you can't really distinguish them anymore. (Though that is mostly for selling them as breeders.) Plus, again, if it has the enigma syndrome trait, I would NOT want to breed them for babies to possibly have that problem. (Which I know some never show symptoms.) I'd rather not go through test breeding just to confirm what said geckos traits would be.

I just want to be as careful as possible since it'll be a while before I do decide to breed. Less stress for the gecko, no "unwanted" baby geckos from test breeding (I would care for them until they find homes of course), and not flooding the impurity of gecko morphs as it is. Same as for the health of the breeding geckos and their offspring.
 
Sybilestial

Sybilestial

New member
It's worth a try at least. So far I've only found DNA testing for determining sex or if they have Cryptosporidium.
 
A

acpart

Well-known member
I don't know much about this, but I would imagine that DNA testing for determining sex would only work for geckos with sex chromosomes. I don't know whether leopard geckos have been genetically sequenced,or whether the DNA for each albino type, or for enigma syndrome has been described in a diagnostic way. I think it would be good to find that out before looking for a place to do the testing. In my opinion, a reasonable substitute for having this information would be getting healthy geckos from reputable breeders who can give you accurate genetic information, and not breeding enigmas.

Aliza
 
Sybilestial

Sybilestial

New member
Getting them from reputable breeders does save a headache. I just couldn't pass up a free, healthy gecko that looks amazing.

How are people even determining their traits in the first place, then? It's like wondering how someone knows for a fact their geckos have 60% het without doing an actual test. I feel like morphs have been guessed from the first place and people bred the geckos to keep said traits. I've tried reading the genetics, though it doesn't help much.
 
A

acpart

Well-known member
Here's what I wrote on another forum to someone trying to figure out what the 66% was:

100% het means that the gecko is definitely het for the trait.
The het percentage otherwise is based on the punnett square, which is a way to determine all the possible outcomes for a trait. So, if two geckos each have a dominant trait ("A") and a recessive trait ("a") and they breed, the offspring will have one of the following combinations, since it gets one of these genes from each parent:
aa, Aa,aA,AA. The "aa" gecko will express the trait (for example, a Bell albino). The AA gecko will not have any genes for the recessive trait, and the other two (Aa, aA) will have one gene for the trait (i.e. be "het" for that trait). The problem is, that the AA,aA and Aa geckos will all look the same and there's no way to know which ones have the recessive trait. So, out of 4 possible outcomes, one is visibly recessive and 2 out of the other 3 (or 2/3 which =66%) will also have a recessive gene. Each gecko either has the gene or doesn't have it, but statistically, it has a 66% chance of having it. Other breeding combinations may result in offspring with a 50% chance of having the gene.


It would be great if you could do a DNA test to find out for sure whether or not a particular gecko has a gene for a particular trait. As I mentioned before, I don't think the research has been done to allow that. Consequently, we need to do test breeding to see whether the possibility of a trait is a fact or not.

Aliza
 
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