Genetics

[VENOM]

WHat is the outcome of a hybrid? are the genes 50/50 from both parents or different? I noticed the female traits show up in flowerhorns more than the male from what I see in my LFs

If I crossed a dempsey and texas, would It look more texas or dempsey?

 

[Synirr]

They technically have 50% of their genetic material from each parent, but it is possible for the genes of one parent to be expressed over those of the other due to genetic imprinting. As for the Texas x JD, I have no idea.

 

[aardvarkfromspace]

The hybrids I've seen usually look more like 1 of the parents.. Like the jellybean parrots... usually they either have a parrot body or a convict body.. never seen a sort of stubby long bodied jellybean parrot before.. I've only really seen convicts crossed with other cichlids.

Not sure about flowerhorns

 

[anvil63]

genotype (an animals genetic makeup) in a hybrid --> always 50/50

phenotype (how an animal looks) --> can vary widely depending on how the genes are expressed.


Carl

 

[sylvia]

Note on flowerhorns - they are not a cross of only 2 species.

What anvil said is exactly right. However, some species (don't know examples of fish though) can cross and end up with an odd number of chromosomes. This is rare and, usualy, such offspring are not viable. However, in certain cases of hybrids it does occur so, sometimes, you get more like a 51:49 ratio of genes frome each parent ok so that ratio isn't exactly right but for the sake of the arguement it'll do...

 

[_cRaCkEr_]

Here's the formula.

A = Male
B = Female

A x B = 1/4A.3/4B

Offsprings gets

A = 25-30%
B = 75-80%

/.: Offsprings get most of their blood from the female.

 

[Synirr]

Actually, there is technically an even share of genetic information from each parent, but your ratios may indeed be correct as to what percentage is actually expressed in the offspring... but whether you see it or not, 50% of the genes do come from each parent.

 

[bballking]

From what I know, you obtain one allele from each parent. Then from those 2 alleles they can each either be recessive or dominant for the most part. The dominant allele is the one that shows up in the phenotype. However, sometimes when you get two recessive alleles the phenotype is that trait. If you get two dominants then the trait is the only type of allele that showed up. I'm not sure how much of this is true for fish, its just what I learned in my Biology class.

 

[Synirr]

I just had a thought. Like what sylvia said with odd numbers of chromosomes, I suppose that with hybrids it's possible for the amount of genetic material within each chromosome contributed by each parent to be different so that maybe it's not exactly a 50-50 split, but the difference is negligible; if it weren't the combination would not be viable. Basically, for every gene one parent contributes, there needs to be a similar or equivalent gene contributed by the other parent or it will cause problems.

The reason the offspring look more like one parent than the other is almost certainly genetic imprinting, like I said before.