Analogous Conditions in Other Animals
The MATP gene is highly conserved, especially among mammals. The human MATP gene is 82% identical to the mouse MATP gene, 79% identical to the rat MATP gene, 35% to the zebrafish version, and 30% identical to the fruitfly MATP gene. The gene is best known in humans as being the location of a mutation that results in human type IV oculocutaneous albinism (OCA4). Type IV oculocutaneous albinism, like other types of human albinism, results in hypopigmentation of the skin and eyes, with increased rates of skin cancer and reduced visual acuity. None of these effects are associated with the equine cream gene. Other human MATP polymorphisms result in normal pigment variations, specifically fair skin, light eyes, and light hair in Caucasian populations.
A polymorphism on the mouse MATP gene is known to be the cause of the underwhite coat color phenotype. The phenotype was first identified in the 1960s, and since then has been mapped successfully. Affected individuals have a reduction in eye and coat pigmentation, and irregularly shaped melanosomes.
Read more about this topic: Cream Gene, Inheritance and Expression
Famous quotes containing the words analogous, conditions and/or animals:
“It has become the custom in our country to expect all Chief Executives, from the President down, to conduct activities analogous to an entertainment bureau. No occasion is too trivial for its promoters to invite them to attend and deliver an address.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Among the laws controlling human societies there is one more precise and clearer, it seems to me, than all the others. If men are to remain civilized or to become civilized, the art of association must develop and improve among them at the same speed as equality of conditions spreads.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“Thou almost mak’st me waver in my faith
To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
That souls of animals infuse themselves
Into the trunks of men.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)