Gene controlling a differentiation step in the quail melanocyte.

Albino mutation in animals blocks pigmentation owing to a deficiency in tyrosinase, although it does not affect the differentiation of colorless melanocytes from the neural crest. In the albino Japanese quail (al, sex-linked), it was demonstrated that morphologically normal melanocytes differentiated from neural crest cells in culture and that these cells contained unmelanized melanosomes as expected for the mutant cells. The mutant melanocytes, however, were shown to exhibit tyrosinase activity in the Golgi-endoplasmic reticulum-lysosome region and in the Golgi vesicles. Our results seem to indicate that the mutation at the al locus affects the transport of tyrosinase from the Golgi area to melanosomes.