Meanings of differant colour morphs

[Gary Smith]

Hello,
Can someone explain the meanings of all the differant colour morphs? What is GFP or leucistic mean? Thanks for all your help! What a great forum this is, too bad I live in Canada where axolotls, salamandres, and newts are pretty well non existant in the trade.

Gary

[Dick Willis]

Check out this page Axolotls - Genetics and Colour for an excellent explanation.

[Velaria]

GFP = Green fluorescent protein. Fluorescent proteins in many different colors exist naturally, as in the case of jellyfish, for instance. Scientists have figured out how to incorporate these fluorescent proteins into the nuclei of axolotl cells, hence the GFP axolotls available today. Odd that no one ever used red, yellow, or blue protein in axolotl cells, but it could be done just as easily as the green was incorporated. Another example of GFP animals can be found at www.neonmice.com.

The axolotls below can all be bred with GFP:

leucistic: white with black eyes
wildtype: greenish/ mottled brown
white albino: white with pink eyes
golden albino: golden with golden eyes
melanoid: colors ranging from grey to black, can be spotted or solid, black eyes. Gills can be pink or black.