A Lesson in Basic Genetics

Human genetics has not yet adopted the wild type standard but it's good for ball pythons. Revision in the 1920s for wild type (AKA normal) is to use the + character for wild type, either alone of as a super script. So Y = yellowbelly, and either + or Y⁺ or y⁺ for wild type. As far as I know there is no official symbol for yellowbelly, so I'm keeping it as simple as possible. The Yb symbol is a possible alternative, though.

Here are a couple of useful links for gene symbols:

Link to a paper from the BioScience journal giving rules for appropriate gene symbols --
http://www.ringneckdove.com/Wilmer's...ioscience.html and search for the section "Use of a standard of reference".

Link to Guidelines for Nomenclature of Genes, Genetic Markers, Alleles, and Mutations in Mouse and Rat -- http://www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen/gene.shtml. Sections 1 and 3 are the most useful parts.