Toffino genetics question

If I had multi-thousand dollar animals for sale, I would definitely be labeling them as their lineage has been labeled! It was probably a mistake though... At least I hope!:please:

I'm getting into this discussion late, but there are some points I'd like to comment on.

Toffee and albino may be the first compatible recessive mutant genes in ball pythons, but there are several others in other species of snakes. There are a number of others, including Sharp albino and Sharon Moore caramel in boa constrictors, ultrahypomelanistic and amelanistic in corn snakes, and motley and stripe in corn snakes. More will turn up in time. There are more than two compatible mutant genes in the ball python white snake complex. Expect more than two compatible recessive mutants to turn up. That has happened in many non-herps, so it is just a matter of time.

As far as I know, not even the pro geneticists have a simple term for a snake that is either het toffee or het albino. I'd use "either het toffee or het albino." For what it's worth, I've never liked "parahet".

As far as I know, nobody has tested albino ball pythons to tell if they are tyrosinase negative albinos or tyrosinase positive albinos.

Amelanistic in corn snakes has been tested and is tyrosinase negative. So amelanistic corn snakes have nonfunctional tyrosinase, and ultrahypomelanistic corn snakes have partially functional tyrosinase.

On the other hand, Bern Bechtel also tested tyrosinase positive albino black rat snakes. And breeding tests showed that caramel in the black rat snake was compatible with tyrosinase positive albino but not compatible with tyrosinase negative albino. Both the tyrosinase positive albino and caramel snakes have fully functional tyrosinase. Some other gene-controlled enzyme is nonfunctional (apparently) in the tyrosinase-positive albino snakes and partially functional in the caramel snakes.

Toffee and albino in royal pythons probably parallel either the situation in corn snakes or the situation in balck rat snakes. Until ball pythons are tested for tyrosinase activity, it could be either.

By the way, all alleles are genes, but not all genes are alleles. Alleles are compatible genes; they are different genes that have the same locus (location) in the chromosomes. There are three alleles at the albino locus -- the albino mutant gene, the toffee mutant gene, and the normal gene. As they have the same locus, two alleles can make a gene pair. The lesser platinum mutant gene and the mojave mutant gene are alleles. The toffee mutant gene and the albino mutant gene are alleles. But the lesser platinum mutant gene and the toffee mutant gene do not have the same locus so they are not alleles.