Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: Jonny 5 on September 16, 2005, 09:47:28 AM
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Howdy all, just reading the reports and the discussions, and I was just thinking about reds and whites, and the enzyme theory (anyone know the name of the enzyme?). So I just had one idea bout how some of them get marbling (red and white), but I don't have any way to prove it... so I thought I would ask y'all and propose and idea...
Did any of you ever notice if marbled springs are predominantly females? If so, then marbling could be explained by barrs bodies which is random inactivation of chromosomes in one sex.
Anyways, just a thought to distract me from the incredible fishing that I am missing. :'(
Mr 5 out
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Sorry Jonny,
don't know much about chromosomes but the whole thing about white/red & marbled springs reminds me of how some people lack an enzyme and turn red when they drink. Not sure about how that gene gets passed on but maybe its something like that?
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I took some fairly high level genetics coarses in post secondary and while that was a long time ago, i remember looking at calico cats (white/black/orange) and how they are all female.
As it turns out, some chromosomes go into a state knows as supercoils and form these barr bodies Johnny referred to. A supercoiled chromosome can not express its gene code.
So the female cats have 2 X chromosomes in every cel (each one referred to as an allele) and apparantly one half ( or one allele) would coil up an the other half would be available to express what ever gene code was there. As an example, one X would code Black hair, the other X would code white, and if neither were supercoiled, then orange was the product of that gene sequence.
thats a super simplified version...if thats the mechanism for marbling in springs then all marbled springs would be female.
Coinsidentally, the one marbled spring I have seen was a female! If indeed the enzyme needed to absorb caroteen (I think) is on the X chromosome, the yes jonny you are right. I wil see what I can find.
Here's a link for the text book version of calico cat genetics: http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/104/calico.html
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The marbled chinook I caught this year, rolling in at a whomping 62cms, was a male.
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Then we are definitely looking at an autosomal gene (autosomal refers to the fact that the gene is not on the X or Y chromosome) hence this could not be a sex linked trait.
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I remember a thred on this in a forum last year. The final answer came from fisheries. It seems those marbled springs are throw backs to a now exstinct sub speicies of chinook that was resident in our region of the coast.
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I have caught male marbled springs before.
so there!