biostudies-literatureBeaudier PFonds Général de l'Université de GenèveFonds Général de l’Université de GenèveSwiss National Science FoundationEmile Plantamour FundErnst and Lucie Schmidheiny FoundationiGE3 PhD award and the Sara BorrellGeorges and Antoine Claraz FoundationInstituto Carlos III and NextGenerationEUHFSPiyaf236https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12774848biostudies-literatureUnknown232(1)Skin coloration is crucial for the survival of animals and ranges from spectacular colorful displays used to attract a mate to cryptic camouflage used to avoid predators. Among the 3 main types of chromatophores, melanophores are the most widespread in vertebrates and can set the skin tone by the amount of melanin they produce and store in dedicated vesicles, the melanosomes. Mutations associated with melanophore differentiation and maturation result in hypomelanistic and amelanistic phenotypes, both extensively studied in mammals but less so in snakes and lizards. Here, we characterize at the genomic, transcriptomic, and histological level, the Hypomelanistic corn snake morph and 3 hypomelanistic leopard gecko morphs. To minimize bias in studying leopard gecko color morphs, we first assemGeneticsCandidate genes underlying hypomelanistic morphs in squamate reptiles.PMC12774848CD22/0002720446610_2023RGP0037/202220242024/12310030_20446631003023_28Ullate-Agote ATzika ACBeaudier PfalseCandidate genes underlying hypomelanistic morphs in squamate reptiles.Skin coloration is crucial for the survival of animals and ranges from spectacular colorful displays used to attract a mate to cryptic camouflage used to avoid predators. Among the 3 main types of chromatophores, melanophores are the most widespread in vertebrates and can set the skin tone by the amount of melanin they produce and store in dedicated vesicles, the melanosomes. Mutations associated with melanophore differentiation and maturation result in hypomelanistic and amelanistic phenotypes, both extensively studied in mammals but less so in snakes and lizards. Here, we characterize at the genomic, transcriptomic, and histological level, the Hypomelanistic corn snake morph and 3 hypomelanistic leopard gecko morphs. To minimize bias in studying leopard gecko color morphs, we first assem2026-01-01T00:00:00Z2026 Jan2026-06-04T03:20:35.11Z2026-06-04T03:12:51.798ZS-EPMC127748484118349810.1093/genetics/iyaf236