Pigmentary variation in animals has been studied because of its application in genetics, evolution, and developmental biology. The large number of known color loci provides rich resource to elucidate the functional pigmentary system. Nonetheless, more color loci remain to be identified. In our previous study, we revealed that two different strains, namely, AGH rats and LEH rats, but which had t...

The Alström syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by pigmentary retinopathy, diabetes mellitus, sensorineural deafness and obesity. A normal intelligence is often present. We report 9 patients.

A boy aged 9 3/4 years with interstitial nephritis, retinal pigmentary dystrophy, cerebellar ataxia, and skeletal abnormalities is described. The association may be due to a new genetic disorder, since 2 similar cases have been reported.

This report constitutes the first report of a cryptic exonic splice-donor site in CDK5RAP2, highlights the importance of evaluating novel splice mutations, and suggests that the phenotypic range associated with CDK5RAP2 mutations may include skin pigmentary abnormalities.