The Margin Gene

Text and Photos by Anthony Caponetto

Basic Description
Margin, as it's called, refers to a margin of pigment on the inside of the crests/pinstripe scales. This patterning is normally dark and kinda hazy looking, but it's not always dark, as you'll see below in the photo gallery.

While normally confined to around the neck and back of the head, we've produced some with it running the entire length of the dorsal.  As we breed it into different geckos, we're seeing some really neat combinations.  Tangerine pigment, in particular, is proving to be super cool when combined with Margin.

History of the Margin Gene
This is an old gene, but one no one really thought to try breeding for until later on, when we started seeing the gene interact with things we developed later on.  It tends to do neat things when combined with lots of dark pigment, tangerine pigment, hypomelanistic type geckos and who knows what else we'll discover.  The other key thing is that it seems to show up consistently, and now we know it can be increased

Margin Genetics

Margin can either be centralized around the head and neck area, or it can run the length of the dorsal.  As such, it appears to either be dominant and very malleable in terms of selective breeding, or it's an incomplete dominant with a visibly different homozygous (aka "super") form.  Either way, it does very cool things when combined with other traits and genes, and I think we've just scratched the surface of where this gene could lead.  If you're interested in the genes, read on in the gallery, where I break down some various Margin combos. 

Photo Gallery
Margin Combos

This is an exciting little hobby-sized project for me at this point - it's in a lot of my phantom projects already, but we've done very few Margin x Margin pairings thus far.  It's an old gene, but a relatively new project for me in terms of selective breeding...maybe 4-5 years into it thus far. Most of the geckos in the below gallery are geckos that were sold in 2024 or 2025. 

This appears to be the homozygous form of Margin, which will run the length of the dorsal.  This is a gecko where we bred multiple Tigers with Margin patterning to Tigers with intensely dark Tiger markings, then bred geckos from those pairings to their unrelated counterparts to get to the more extreme form, which I believe is most likely the homozygous version.

On the right kind of gecko, Margin will appear lighter or just a different color, rather than simply darker.  The hypo qualities of my C2 lineage and Tangerine pigment both seem to have a major impact on Margin.

This guy is a lot to take in, but notice the strange purplish hue on his back. This is Margin - likely in homozygous form, and it's interacting with what I'd consider a trivial concentration of Tangerine pigment.  Without Margin, I doubt you'd even notice the Tangerine on him, but with Margin you can hardly miss it. 

Here's a gecko where Margin has a pinkish tone due to the hypo qualities of the C2 lineage removing the dark pigment and the Tangerine pigment adding pink. Tangerine x Margin markings like these have a slightly purplish hue at times.  Very interesting and a direction I'm really excited about.

Here's a gecko where Margin has a pinkish tone due to the hypo qualities of the C2 lineage removing the dark pigment and the Tangerine pigment adding pink. Tangerine x Margin markings like these have a slightly purplish hue at times.  Very interesting and a direction I'm really excited about.

Good classic Margin patterning on the neck and head of this C2 line guy with some seriously nice and shaggy Harry line crest/pin structure.

Margin nearly all the way down the dorsal of this Super Soft Scale Tiger Phantom.  This gecko is one I sold, but I really appreciate how her ultra clean patterning really let the Margin shine on it's own.  The Super Soft genetics were the perfect, subtle compliment to her overall look. 

This girl is one we sold.  She's an absolute stunner.  Pretty butter-yellow colored C2 line Tiger with strong Tangerine pigment (think Bubblegum line) and Margin markings that are practically bubblegum pink.

This is a heavily pigmented Tangerine Phantom with nice Margin markings that contour along his head and make his Tangerine tipped crests look amazing.  The Porthole x Whiteout laterals really took him up another level too! This is another gecko we sold, and I'm sorta wondering why I did that, as I type this. :-)

Click HERE To Shop Margin Crested Geckos for Sale

PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION LONG TERM
This page will be a work in progress, as my Margin projects progress. Be sure to bookmark us and check back periodically - I'll add information and pics as we learn and hatch more.