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Entry 32Structure

Pinstripe

Cream along the rows of pins down the dorsal.

PIN
Pinstripe crested gecko, drawn from its genes
A partial Pinstripe, its rows broken

What it looks like

Pinstripe is a row of raised scales along each edge of the back, like two seams framing the top of the gecko. The pins are usually highlighted in cream or white, but Foundation Genetics notes they can also be the base colour, orange, yellow, tangerine or pink; the raised scales and their colour are separate things to look at.

Breeders grade how complete the rows are: FoxReptiles' guide calls rows broken to 90% or less a partial pinstripe, 90 to 99% a high-percentage pinstripe, and rows with large gaps a pin dash. The back between the pins can carry Flame or Harlequin pattern or be solid cream. Where tiger banding is strong it can break the rows, and a dark line just below the edges of the back, where a pin row would sit, is known as a reverse pinstripe.

The series

Same animal, same seed. Only this gene changes. Open any one in the builder.

No Pinstripe
Open in builder
Pinstripe, with the pins unbroken
Open in builder
A partial Pinstripe, its rows broken
Open in builder

With another gene

The same gecko before and after.

Empty Back makes a pinstripe stand out

Empty Back is a dark overlay on the dorsal, and it goes under the pin rows, so the cream lines read stronger against it.

Without
With

Phantom covers a pinstripe

Phantom is a light film that lies over the pattern and the pin rows alike, so the same pinstripe reads faint.

Without
With

Named combinations

Morphs that need this gene and at least one other.

  • Brindlequinadvanced

    A Harlequin broken up by strong, brindled tiger banding into yellow, white and dark bands. Foundation Genetics defines it as a white-pattern Harlequin on a yellow base with strong tigering and lighter pinning, and calls it a combination rather than a single gene.

    NeedsYellow BaseWhite PatternHarlequinPinstripeTiger

  • Phantom Pinstripetakes some work

    A Phantom with pinstripe: muted colour with raised pin rows, the white pattern fading between tail and head, often with a darker head.

    NeedsPhantomPinstripe

  • Quadstripedifficult

    Four clean lengthwise lines: the two pin rows along the back plus a line along the middle of each side, with little other side pattern.

    NeedsPinstripe

With other genes

  • Tigershape each other

    The balance between Tiger and Pinstripe shapes the pattern: pinning pulls it lengthways and tigering across the body, giving looks such as brindle and reverse pin.

  • Axanthicwhiten the pinning

    Axanthic with Pinstripe is known for very bright, paper-white pinning, with no yellow to tint it.

Notes

How it is inheritedA practical breeder model treats Pinstripe as a dominant trait whose rows vary in how complete they are. Foundation Genetics reports that pinning can be brought into a project in a single generation and can take several generations to breed back out. Some breeders see a stronger effect with two copies, and others see a more complex trait shaped by selection.

Where breeders differWhether two copies look different from one hasn't been shown. A partial row isn't a sign of one copy, a full row isn't a sign of two, and a Quadstripe isn't proof of two either.

With other traitsSeveral pin looks are named apart from plain Pinstripe. Margin, sometimes called margin pinstripe, is a margin of pigment along the inside of the crests and pin rows, usually dark and hazy; AC Reptiles finds it either confined to the head and neck or running the whole back. Reverse Pinstripe is a dark line just below the edges of the back where a pin row would sit. Superstripe fills the back between the pin rows with pattern colour, split by a thin line of base colour. Breeders sometimes sort these as partial and full pinstripe.

Where it came fromNo single founder is on record for this name. It is shared hobby vocabulary. Foundation Genetics notes that pinning was defined in the book Rhacodactylus: The Complete Guide and was one of the most wanted traits when breeders first worked on it.

In Gecktopia

Pinstripe is carried as one or two copies in the game, and both are named Pinstripe. How complete the pin rows are is the gecko's continuity, shown in its details as Partial or Full. Full continuity means no breaks at all in the white along the pins, from head to tail, and even Tiger leaves them whole. Any break, however small, makes it Partial, and the lower a gecko's continuity, the more and longer its breaks. Continuity passes from parents to young, the same with one copy or two, so pairing your most continuous Pinstripes lifts a line toward Full over the generations. A pairing preview lists continuity as a possibility rather than giving odds.

  • Passed on in the game as incomplete dominant.

Sources

Entry 32 of 33. Every gecko on this page was drawn from its own genes just now, by the renderer that draws them in the game.