"Pure" locale ID

[Benton1576]

Hiya,

Ive been thinking about this for a while now and cant find any info out there to answer my question without asking.

Im wondering if money is no object, is there any tests that can be performed to determine a pure locale from a cross? skin pigmentation tests, blood tests etc? Ive been wondering since females generally look the same. So if you were to buy a "pure" female that was in fact a cross and bred her with a male that is pure, surely the babies would look very much like a pure locale if not exactly but it is in fact a cross.

I just wondered as i imported some WC chameleons not so long ago. I would like to know that the female is 100% what she is meant to be. It would be so easy for the importers to mix them up accidentaly. Ive heard many stories of people getting chameleons imported that were gravid, and the babies turn out to be Ambilobe when i fact they imported Nosy Faly etc.

I think it would be so hard to tell just by looking at them. I mean, in the wild they are always dirty, scarred etc so they dont look the same as CB. The stunning colours of the Ambilobe for example might not actually be a true representation of what an ambilobe actually looks like. I use Ambilobe as an example as there is such a massive variety in their colouration.

If anyone has any input to this please post. I am very curious to know what could be done to determine a pure locale from a cross, especially with females.

 

[krknieriem]

Very interesting idea, they do currently do that with dogs for around $100

 

[seanUTD]

Locales really in themselves are more like guidelines... To areas where they are found... I can't imagine biologically that it could be determined because it's not like they have actual physical differences besides the pigmentation that shows because they all have close to the same genetic make up... If my old biology lessons serve me right they would have to have mapped the genetic makeup of all the locales to find the trait that decides pigmentation... And I can't imagine mapping chameleon DNA is at the top of geneticists minds.... It would be awesome though I'd pay for that too

 

[Kent67]

I don't believe any DNA work on the pardalis locale-types has even been initiated. Not possible at this time.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

That would be like testing a black German shepherd and a traditional colored brown German shepherd...genetically they are both German shepherds. Like has been mentioned above, the genetics associated with particular color patterns would have to be known, and unfortunately there is probably little if any genetic work done on chameleons.

 

[krknieriem]

Ok then for all the kids out there right now that have been grabbed by this addiction, this gives you something to pursue when you go to college....PLEASE HELP US!!!!!!lol

 

[pssh]

I'm not sure using dogs is the best example because a dog is a dog. You can test to see if a dog has some german shepherd in it. And the genetics behind the coat color of a german shepherd are much more straight forward isn't it? (I have no background in genetics yet so this is just what I've learned/tried to learn on my own.)

 

[Kent67]

What I should have said is that comparative DNA studies are being done on chameleons' evolutionary relationships between species, however, not on the differences between panther locales.