The Kahl albino was found before the Sharp albino, but nobody knows whether Kahl albino is T-negative or not. Nobody has tested either the Kahl or the Sharp strain for tyrosinase activity. So we don't know which is the T-negative. It may turn out that both are T-positive.

The BW caramel can be called a T-positive albino, but that has no bearing on whether the Sharp albino is T-positive or T-negative.

Let's say the BW caramel has a partly functional gene for producing tyrosinase, and the Sharp albino has a nonfunctional gene for producing tyrosinase. Then the BW caramel would be tyrosinase positive , and the Sharp albino would be tyrosinase negative. Mutants at the corn snake's amelanistic locus fit this scenario.

On the other hand, let's say that both the BW caramel and the Sharp albino have fully functional tyrosinase. And they have less than the normal amount of melanin pigment for some reason unrelated to tyrosinase. Then both would be T-positive albinos. Mutants at the black rat snake's tyrosinase positive albino locus fit this scenario.

Paul Hollander

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