Ball Python morph
Ball Python (Python regius)
Visual VPI Axanthic. Homozygous at VPI axanthic locus. Grayscale coloration, no yellow/red pigment.
Reduces yellow/red pigment (xanthophores), producing a grayscale or silver/black/white animal. Pattern shape is normal. VPI line was established by Dave and Tracy Barker at Vida Preciosa International. Incompatible with other axanthic lines (TSK, Jolliff, MJ). Crossing VPI Axanthic with another line produces normal-looking double-het offspring, proving separate genetic loci.
How to identify it: Grayscale appearance: blacks, grays, whites, and silvers. No yellow or brown tones when young. Some VPI Axanthics develop brown tones with age ("browning out"). Pattern shape is normal ball python pattern.
VPI Axanthic follows a recessive inheritance pattern, carried on the Axanthic (VPI Line) allele (locus AxVPI).
Because VPI Axanthic is recessive, an animal needs two copies of the allele to show the trait visually. An animal with a single copy is called het vpi axanthic (heterozygous). A het animal looks normal but carries the gene, so pairing two het vpi axanthic animals produces, on average, one in four visual vpi axanthic offspring.
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