Piebaldism
Encyclopedia
Piebaldism is a rare autosomal dominant
Mendelian inheritance
Mendelian inheritance is a scientific description of how hereditary characteristics are passed from parent organisms to their offspring; it underlies much of genetics...

 disorder of melanocyte
Melanocyte
-External links: - "Eye: fovea, RPE" - "Integument: pigmented skin"...

 development. Common characteristics include a congenital white forelock, scattered normal pigmented and hypopigmented macules and a triangular shaped depigmented patch on the forehead.

Although piebaldism may visually appear to be partial albinism
Albinism
Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of an enzyme involved in the production of melanin...

, it is a fundamentally different condition. The vision problems associated with albinism are not usually present as eye pigmentation is normal. Piebaldism differs from albinism in that the affected cells maintain the ability to produce pigment but have that specific function turned off. In albinism the cells lack the ability to produce pigment all together.

It may be associated with KIT or SNAI2
SNAI2
Zinc finger protein SNAI2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SNAI2 gene.-Further reading:...

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