# Genetic Terms?



## bettalover2033 (Feb 17, 2010)

Well I know enough about the basics of genetics and enough to breed as well and guess what the colors could be.

Though what really confuses me is the terms F1, F2, F3, ect. I never understood completely, besides that it means the first second third, ect generations.

So why do they use F instead of using G for generation?

Also many other terms that include genetics and guessing the outcomes of a spawn or a crossed spawn. I just can't think of them at the moment. So if anyone else could add in some that may be confusing I would greatly appreciate it.

I'm sure OFL can explain this in depth.


----------



## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

I forgot why they use "F". Biology was decades ago. But they've used it and I've come accustomed to it so I use it too. LOL

I can't think of any genetic terms .... there has to be a topic or else the words would not pop up in my head......


----------



## bettalover2033 (Feb 17, 2010)

indjo said:


> I forgot why they use "F". Biology was decades ago. But they've used it and I've come accustomed to it so I use it too. LOL
> 
> I can't think of any genetic terms .... *there has to be a topic or else the words would not pop up in my head*......


What about the typical questions like How long will it take until I will get a nice strain of Combtails when breeding CT and HM?

Ring any bells LOL? I really feel kind of brain dead with this.


----------



## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

Not sure why they use F, which is sad because I did this lesson last semester haha. 

Typical questions like that have to be taken individually because of factors like food, water, tank sizes etc.


----------



## bettalover2033 (Feb 17, 2010)

Ahh, very true! I didn't think of that..

Okay so F1 would just mean the first generation right?

Look at this article...http://bettysplendens.com/articles/page.imp?articleid=858

When it starts talking about the brown hair and such, what is she talking about? Also the squares that we do in bio, general science, I have no idea.. It's very confusing to me when I'm sure I'm just making is harder on myself.


----------



## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

bettalover2033 said:


> Ahh, very true! I didn't think of that..
> 
> Okay so F1 would just mean the first generation right?
> 
> ...


Those squares show recessive vs dominant traits and give an idea to what the next generation will have. 

Example: Capital B is blue eye and lower case b is brown eye.

BB BB
bb bB bB
bb bB bB

So in the case of four offspring all would have brown eyes but carry the blue eye gene.


----------



## tpocicat (Aug 8, 2011)

And of course, bettas are much more confusing because there is color, iridenscence, fin types, etc. F1 means first generation, F2 means second breeding either with father/daughter, mother/son, or sibling pair, and so on...


----------



## bettalover2033 (Feb 17, 2010)

This makes much more sense now!


----------



## styggian (Dec 13, 2011)

Apparently it means "filial 1," "filial 2," "filial 3," etc. Filial 1 is the first breeding, your foundation pair, filial 2 is the second generation from your foundation pair, either parent/offspring or sibling/sibling, filial 3 will be the third generation and so on. 

An F3 would be an offspring and grand-child (so to speak) or two "grandchildren" of the original pair.


----------



## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

Now that makes sense using the Latin root. Filius/filia meaning children, ah gotcha.


----------



## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

That's right, filial, a latin word which I think means offspring or son/daughter.... It was adapted by Life Science to show generation. F1, F2, F3, F4 - F4 is said to produce F0 (the original parents) That's why I would only inbreed until 4 generations.

Genetics in general is confusing - even worse when it comes to bettas. Certain physical appearance is not made up of 1 allele (the parts that forms a gene. eg: from the above - BB..... one "B" is an allele) - but a number of them. To simplify understanding genetics is coded, often with letters (like the above example). When crossed bred, these alleles will mutate or combine with other alleles to form other genes (both common genes and new genes/strain)

Allele is more unstable, in the sense that it's not fixed and may combine in various variations. Single alleles would not show physically unless it's dominant over the other gene/allele. (Eg. a dragon needs to have 2 metallic genes to show dragon scale) Where as genes are more stable and would show physically - like dragon scales, color, fin type, etc. ...... don't ask why some genes/alleles are dominant while others are recessive - because I don't know. LOL 

*** it's been decades, so I'm sorry if I got something wrong and hope someone will correct me.

Now to answer your typical question; as far as I know fin type genes hasn't been ... concluded.... identified (???). *So I'll MAKE IT UP to simplify explanation. And this is totally theoretical.*
Let's say a CT is AA since it's more dominant than HM which will be coded as aa. AA and aa are genetic codes that shows each strain/fin type.

When the alleles are separated, the punnet square becomes something like this: ..... sorry, IDK how to make tables here. Please excuse my method of typing.
F1 AA x aa = . A A 
. . . . . . . . a Aa Aa 
. . . . . . . . a Aa Aa
Aa is a new genetic code showing half of each type. So fry will be 100% half of both. You will have smaller and uneven web reduction.

F2 Aa x Aa = . A . a 
. . . . . . . . A AA. Aa 
. . . . . . . . a Aa . aa
Theoretically you should have 25% CT, 25% HM, and 50% mixed genes. But in real life both the CT and HM you get aren't perfect and still unstable.

F3 AA x AA = naturally you should get 100% AA genes or CT. But in real life you will still have odd mutations in some of the fry. This generation should be more stable and should breed true in the following generations.

I agree with MrV, fins strongly depends on external factors like water quality, food, general environment, etc. This is why fins are more difficult to pin point in genetic terms - you will have a lot of fry that doesn't concur to theory. But hopefully this gives you a general idea of how genetic works.


----------

