Origin of Albinos?

[usafaux2004]

Any truth to this:

"Frankensteinolotl

The albino axolotl was first developed in 1964, by back-crossing the F2 children of a hybrid Ambystoma tigrinum (female albino tiger salamander) and an Ambystoma mexicanum (male white axolotl). If you have an albino axolotl, you can trace its ancestry back to this amazing experiment."

Are there no naturally occuring Albino axies?

 

[auntiejude]

Thats the story I heard too, It sounds pretty plausible. But where did the albino A. tigrinum come from?

Albino animals in general are pretty rare in the wild, they usually get picked on by siblings, caught by natural predators etc and don;t survive to reproduce. So if the gene was there pre1964 there may at some point have been wild albino axies.

Anyone want to put their axies on the 'Who do you think you are' programme on TV and trace their lineage?!

 

[seagull]

i find it hard to believe a mexicanum tigrinum hybrid could last that long and allbe neotenic

 

[Cole Grover]

Yes, that is true. Here's the citation:

Humphrey, R.R. 1967a. Albino axolotls from an albino tiger salamander through hybridization. Journal of Heredity 58:95-101.

All axolotls from albino lineage are hybrids with Ambystoma tigrinum (specifically, a female from Minnesota, USA).

Leucism, however, was found in the wild population of A. mexicanum and leucistic specimens are among the founder stock for the modern pet/laboratory axolotl as we know it.

-Cole

 

[michael]

White albino? Gold albino? Are you sure it is all?

 

[Cole Grover]

Yes, all of them... unless there is another form of albinism/amelanism out there. All white albinos are the result of the albino gene ("gold albino") in combination with another recessive mutation (such as axanthism or melanism ["melanoid"]), aren't they? The albino gene removes the melanin, while the second mutation removes the yellow coloration. As such, all albinos carry the same albino gene, which was introgressed from A. tigrinum.

 

[usafaux2004]

Still hard to believe there's no natural abinos. Maybe there were..but still.

 

[Azhael]

Well, it´s not like albino mutations MUST happen...There are plenty of species in which i´ve never heard of albino mutations and i bet there are plenty in which you´ve never heard of melanistic, erythristic or whatever mutations. Furthermore, albinistic mutations might have appeared a number of times in the wild but the mutation might have been lethal, or been wiped/selected out before the animal or animals could reproduce.

I used to think only the golden albino had been introgressed, but someone was kind enough to correct my mistake. I have to say everything makes a lot more sense since xDD I´m certain i wasn´t the only one to get it wrong so i´m glad the correct info is being put out there.

 

[Cole Grover]

Here's a quick link regarding the origin and morphology/physiology of various genetic abnormalities in Ambystoma mexicanum: Mutant Genes. For those who would really like the "scoop" on the subject, a thorough reading of the primary literature is always a good choice. Check out the references!

-Cole