The Whiteout/Whitewall Gene

Text and Photos by Anthony Caponetto
Last Updated: January, 2025

Early graphic of two siblings from the 2012 breeding season.  The geckos in the graphic are nearly identical siblings (though not same age) and they have what I coined "Whiteout" lateral markings - and "Extreme Whiteout", which we later ended up calling "Whitewall", but more about that later.

The gecko on the right is a homozygous carrier of the gene, giving it Whitewall laterals (what I originally termed "Extreme Whiteout") and the one on the left is a visual heterozygous (or "het") gene carrier.

Whiteout vs Whitewall

Whiteout is what I originally named the gene because they look like they were painted on with Whiteout brand liquid eraser.  This is the gene behind what is now widely called the "Whitewall" appearance, which is a term I use to this day and I believe was coined by my friend, Matt Parks, at Pangea Reptile (only diet we use, just FYI).

A Whitewall is basically just the homozygous version of the Whiteout, where the solid white lateral markings span the sides from limb to limb and reach up fairly high on the sides.  I believe the Whitewall markings have this appearance because of Whiteout being present in two gene copies and how it combines with lateral striping. I believe there's likely a separate gene controlling whether lateral markings are striped, portholes or whatever else (or non-existent). 

Genetically speaking, you can think of a Whitewall a homozygous Whiteout (or "Super Whiteout"), though you won't see either of those terms used in the hobby (at least not yet).

Whiteout Genetics

Whiteout is an incomplete dominant genetic mutation.

Breeding Whiteout x Whiteout should produce roughly 1/4 Homozygous Whiteout (aka Whitewall), 1/4 Non-Whiteout, and 1/2 Whiteout. 

Whiteout Gene Combos & Descriptions

Below are some images of various geckos where the Whiteout gene is present, along with a brief description of what you're looking at.  As with most genes, all of the other pattern elements present in a gecko, such as Pinstripe, Harlequin, Tiger and Portholes vs. Lateral Striping, can all have an impact on Whiteout/Whitewall markings.

Above is a C2/Citrus line Yellow & Cream Super Soft Scale with Whitewall Laterals.

ATangerine x Lavender/Black Pinstripe with some very attractive Whiteout (heterozygous) markings. Note that the Whiteout lateral markings have taken on a pinkish-peach tone, due to the presence of Tangerine pigment.

This is a heavily Tangerine-pigmented Super Soft Scale with some excellent Whitewall lateral markings.

Great example of aberrantly patterned Whiteout markings on a Tangerine x Lavender Line Tri-Color

This gecko is a good example of one that could be a really nice Whiteout, or it could be a lower expression Whitewall - I believe this is actually a Whitewall, where the Harlequin markings are interfering with the height. 

C2 Citrus line Super Soft Scale with Whitewall markings and Tangerine pigment. This gecko is also a visual heterozygous Empty Back, evident by the yellow base color showing through the dorsal.  

Whitewall laterals on a Tangerine x Citrus line Soft Scale + Het Empty Back

This is the gecko with aberrant Whitewall laterals- same gecko pictured at the top of the page. The pattern doesn't cut straight across, so some terminology nerds on social media might argue it's not a Whitewall. 

Something really weird/rare with some very unusual Whitewall markings. I wouldn't have necessarily known these were the same thing if I hadn't produced the gecko myself!

Great looking Tri-Color with Whiteout/Whitewall Laterals

Whitewall laterals on a Pink-Red Super Soft Scale. This gecko has no Lilly White present, yet note the ultra wide creamy fringe on her hind legs.  This widening of the fringe markings seems to be part of the Whiteout/Whitewall gene, essentially doing the same thing it does to white markings on the sides.

Phantom x Whiteout Combos

It's still unclear why, but Phantoms with a yellow or orange base color, which includes all my various C2, Citrus and Tangerine line crosses, will sometimes severely mute Whiteout lateral markings, while other times letting it shine through in all its glory. I think a lot of it has to do with the way Phantom likes to mute the white markings and also because of the light base color of the geckos contrasting with white the least of all crested gecko base colors.

This Tangerine x Citrus line Soft Scale Phantom has Whiteout laterals (most likely just one gene copy), which is what's making the lateral striping very thick.  The Tiger pattern is what's making the laterals so jagged/aberrant and Tangerine pigment is tinting them a pinkish orange color.  

This is a C2/Tangerine line Phantom with Whiteout (unsure if one or two gene copies) being severely muted by Phantom.  This one is obvious enough to be believed, but I commonly see Phantoms with Whitewall laterals so muted that you'd miss them, if you didn't know to be on the lookout for the gene.

Whiteout x Porthole Laterals

This is where the naming convention we currently use gets a bit dicey and the adoption of a term like "Super Whiteout" might have been better, had genetics been understood before the term "Whitewall" was coined. 

The animals you'll see below possess two copies of the Whiteout gene, but there are probably 20 experts on social media who would shame you for calling these geckos "Whitewalls". 

Right now these are being referred to as "Portholes" in the hobby and if there's one thing I can tell you, it's that this isn't what used to be called Portholes and I know because I made them look this way intentionally by putting Whiteout into them.  The geckos below exhibit a combination of Porthole laterals AND two copies of Whiteout.

This is something I began working on in the early 2010's, albeit in small numbers for the first several years - back then, Phantoms made up a small portion of my collection.  I didn't really fully explore what could be done here until maybe 2019 or so, which is when I started getting serious about putting together a large "parallel colony" of Phantoms with all the genes and traits from my non-Phantom projects.

This is essentially a homozygous carrier of the Whiteout gene with Porthole type laterals, rather than striped. This is genetically speaking what we all call a Whitewall, but you surely would be crucified verbally by scores of self-anointed experts if you were to call this a Whitewall on social media. This starts to take us full circle back to the "Extreme Whiteout" term I started using 10+ years ago.  In today's nomenclature, though, I'd probably opt to call this a Super or Homozygous Whiteout x Porthole combo.

Homozygous Whiteout (Porthole combo) on a red-spotted red Super Dalmatian Phantom Pinstripe.

Whiteout (Homozygous) on a red Soft Scale + Super Dalmatian + Phantom Pinstripe.  

Outrageous Homozygous Whiteout (Porthole type) laterals on a red Soft Scale + Phantom Pinstripe

Excellent example of Porthole type homozygous Whiteout laterals on one of my Chips line (German/Russian stock) red Dalmatians.

Homozygous Whiteout laterals (Porthole type) on a fantastic red Soft Scale + Phantom

Whiteout/Whitewall vs Lilly White

This has been a topic of debate here in my collection and I've come to the conclusion this shouldn't be an either/or proposition (like it ever is!).  I love me some white and both genes have their strong points. 

My takeaway is that both should have a place in most serious collections - with the obvious exception of specialty breeders with small, yet serious collections - or as I think of them, breeders who haven't been sucked down the rabbit hole just yet. :-) 

Pros for Whiteout/Whitewall
With Lillies, I don't want to breed Lilly x Lilly (the super form is fatal), so the best I'm going to do in terms of genetic odds is about 50% Lilly Whites and 50% Non-Lillies.

With Whiteout, however the homozygous form is not only fatal, it's a more extreme version of the heterozygous form, which is also visually identifiable.  This means we can breed homozygous Whiteouts (Whitewall, Porthole type, etc.) together and get 100% homozygous Whiteout offspring.  This ultimately means the project will progress at a much faster rate, especially if there's a certain color or another pattern gene that you're trying to make combos of.

I've also noticed that the laterals on Whitewall x Phantom geckos are generally bigger/fuller than the laterals on Lilly White x Phantoms.  This does not seem to be the case in their non-Phantom counterparts.

Pros for Lilly White
That being said, the lateral markings are where the similarities end.  Lilly White does things Whiteout/Whitewall does not.  The biggest difference is that Lillies are known for gaining white throughout the body, well beyond the lateral markings, with age.