Question: Are coppers just lightly colored wild types?

[jadealexis]

I've been reading up on color genetics and this is what I got.

Wild
D/D or D/d; M/M or M/m; A/A or A/a; AX/AX or AX/ax
Melanoid
D/D or D/d; m/m; A/A or A/a; ?
Gold albino
D/D or D/d; M/M or M/m; a/a; AX/AX or AX/ax
White Albino
d/d; M/m or M/M; a/a; AX/AX or AX/ax
Melanoid albino
D/D or D/d; m/m; a/a; AX/AX or AX/ax
Axanthic albino
D/D or D/d; M/m or M/M; a/a; ax/ax
Leucistic
d/d; M/m or M/M; A/A or A/a; ax/ax

Didn't see anything about the Copper color, but I'm guessing they are just Wilds that are bred to be lighter and lighter colored. Am I correct?

 

[rachel1]

Nope. They lay white eggs, so it's thought to be a form of albino. Probably a tyrosinase positive albino, but the genetics are still unconfirmed as far as I know. Compare the copper color morph to T+ albinos in other species, like the ball python. There are a lot of steps in proper melanin production, so any heritable error along the way in melanin synthesis can give you different looks. In general dilute pigmentation is called T+, even when tyrosinase may not be involved, because tyrosinase was the first widely known enzyme that resulted in partial pigment development.

 

[jadealexis]

Whoa. Did not see that coming. That's really cool, thank you.

 

[Bette]

Right on, Rachel! Good info.

 

[auntiejude]

Copper is a relatively new colour variation, and don't get included in the classic genetics discussions. They literally are the redheads of the axie world, producing an altered form of melanin that is orange-brown instead of black-brown.

Rachel's explanation is perfect.

 

[silhouette71au]

Amazing the info available here