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Hybino: misnomer or worse?


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Bull, Pine, and Gopher Snake Forum ]

Posted by KJUN on April 25, 2003 at 08:01:28:

In Reply to: crazy corn,Acually you are wrong? posted by shannon brown on April 25, 2003 at 00:03:38:

Shannon is correct, but I wanted to give even more information. Some people, such as with Honduran milks, consider a hybino to be the double homozygous albino hypos. However, some people use the term hybino to mean an exceptionally bright albino that is (possibly) nonallelic with the plainer, more common, albino gene. Some people just use it to mean a REALLY brightly colored albino. One of these last two options seems to fit the "Hybino" Sonoran description. So, you need to ask the individual seller what they mean.

In almost all situations (except when it is used as a misnomer for a nonallelic, exceptionally bright albino), I think the term is a stupid marketing ploy to trick a buyer into giving a seller additional money. A hypomelanistic (e.g., hypo) animal has a reduction in black pigmentation. An albino, or amelanistic animal, has an inability to make any melanin, or black pigmentation. So an animal that can't make any melanin pigmentation at all would "overwrite" the hypo gene saying to reduce the amount of pigmentation. So, a try "hybino," by the first definition as in Honduran milks, MUST, but definition and biochemical fact, be no different phenotypically from a normal albino (=amelanistic).

Now, if the "hybino" IS different, then either the two composite genes (albino and hypo) must be a misnomer. In some snakes, such as cornsnakes, hypo also seem to have an increase in PINK coloration. That is why a hypo snow is a "pink snow" and can "sometimes" be differentiated from a non-hypo snow corn. So, obviously the term "hypomelanistic" in corns (and maybe in other species, too) is a erronous due to possibly being an oversimplified assumtion about what that gene really is!

Basically, all I am saying is to be real careful. A hybino can be a really unique animal if the albino and hypo gene in the species in question are actually more than what the name implies (e.g., cornsnakes), just another allelic (not really different) or nonallelic (really different) form of albinism (e.g., one of these sems to be what is occuring in Sonorans), or a just a way to get more money for an animal that is nothing more phenotypically than normal-old albino.

KJ



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