Is This Cat Albino?

[calamityProphet]

Hi! I'm new to the forums and I have a question. One of my cats, Whitestorm, may be an albino. He's a white cat with blue eyes (that glint pink in light), he's a little cross eyed and has slight vision problems-- but here's the thing: he has flame/red points. I know this leads to him having some siamese/himalayan/etc. DNA, but considering that gene is where albinism also occurs and what I can tell about him, I can't tell. Any input? (By the way, his mother is mixed breed and we don't know who his father is. Three of his siblings were orange tabbies and one was creamy white with silver/blue points from birth.)

This last picture is Whitestorm next to his brother, Lionheart, (we adopted one of his tabby brothers, too) in case you wanted to compare.


P.S. Our oldest cat is of unknown, almost definitely mixed breed, but if you have any guesses as to what breeds might be in his DNA that'd be great! (I don't think we knew either of his parent's breeds, either.) Here are some pictures of our oldest:

He's about 15 lbs and has extremely long fur, peach fuzz between his ears and eyes, and carries most of his weight in his back half instead of his shoulders. He's very kind and gentle, extremely intelligent, and playful at times. He understands English, was an indoor-outdoor cat and knew how to find his way home, and can also be very lazy. I hope this helps!

 

[Kieka]

Not an albino, he is a flame point cat. Specifically it is the pointed gene expressing itself on a orange/red cat. The pointed gene makes the color show at the points of the cats. All pointed cats can trace back to a Siamese somewhere in their ancestry and it takes two carriers of the pointed gene to make a pointed cat.

 

[DeweytheLion]

Aha! From Warriors! How lovely.

 

[abyeb]

In addition to what Kieka expertly explained, I'd like to add that technically Whitestorm is a partial albino, all pointed cats are, they're born white and then the cooler temperature causes the colors to develop on the face, ears, legs, and tail.

 

[StefanZ]

The other one: what is the eye color?

 

[sabian]

I'm no expert but I would say no by looking at the pics. Can't see the eyes to well. Kieka and Abyeb seem to have researched this more so than I though.

 

[DeweytheLion]

His eyes are blue!

 

[StefanZ]

Point has blue eyes, the gray too?

His eyes are blue!

 

[DeweytheLion]

Point has blue eyes, the gray too?

I'm pretty sure the gray kitty has green eyes!

 

[StefanZ]

Ah then coompare him to a nebelung unless she is diluted tortie.

 

[segelkatt]

In addition to what Kieka expertly explained, I'd like to add that technically Whitestorm is a partial albino, all pointed cats are, they're born white and then the cooler temperature causes the colors to develop on the face, ears, legs, and tail.

Being white does not make an albino. Albino cats have no color anywhere, their skin is pink, their eyes are most likely pink, red or palest blue and only 2% of cats are albino and thus very rare. There is one up for adoption at the Los Angeles Shelter right now, only 2 months old.

This cat looks like a flame point Siamese mix.

 

[abyeb]

Being white does not make an albino. Albino cats have no color anywhere, their skin is pink, their eyes are most likely pink, red or palest blue and only 2% of cats are albino and thus very rare. There is one up for adoption at the Los Angeles Shelter right now, only 2 months old.

This cat looks like a flame point Siamese mix.

Partially albino, a simple way of putting that the colorpointing in cats is caused by a mutation in the tyrosinase (the gene that causes albinism in most species, including cats) that causes temperature-sensitive expression of the colors. This is also sometimes called Himalayan albinism (hence the name, Himalayan Persian) and is also seen in rabbits.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

.
segelkatt - Abyeb's explanation is quite correct. Albino phenotypes are well known in several species including the Siamese cat, and its crosses. The simplified explanation is that on the C locus, an allele in the TYR(osinase) series (expressed as "C - wild type") is carried concordantly with the pointing 'gene' (i.e. cs in Siamese, Oriental, Tonkinese, Javanese, Balinese, Birman and Snowshoe cats or cb in Burmese cats); this is the same C-locus TYR/wa which causes albinism in other species as well (including in Humans), and in tandem with cs or cb, the albinism becomes temperature-sensitive.

The less simplified explanation is that temperature-sensitive albinism as a phenotype is 'caused' by a (particular) cytosine deletion in TYR (at position 975 in exon 2, causing a frame-shift in one of the stop codons in the nucleic structure, in precisely the same fashion as the parallel TYR cytosine deletion at exon 4 causes albinism in ferrets) and as the gene corresponds directly to the colour locus in cats, the alleles are then structured 1.) C [the dominant, being full colour]; 2. and 3.) cs and cb (the Siamese and Burmese temperature-sensitive albinistic phenotypes respectively), and 4.) c: simplified recessive - non-temperature-sensitive albino [i.e.a colourless coat and eyes]. There's an abstract of a paper (available from JSTOR) here:

Albinism in the domestic cat (Felis catus) is associated with a tyrosinase (TYR) mutation. - PubMed - NCBI

which identifies the precise source via radiomapping as Microsatellite FCA931.
.

 

[segelkatt]

according to that it is also a type of albinism causes my medium haired black cat to fade to brow-orange-eventually greyish white because he does not have enough Tyrosine in his diet for him to make enough melanin to keep him black. I have been feeding him 500 mg of L-Tyrosine for the last 2 years after he had turned orangy-brown wherever his hair was the longest. His belly hair turned greyish white. He is now black again as you can see in the second pic with just the slightest brown tone, however his belly hair stayed greyish white e.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

.
Tyronaise deficiency affects the body's ability to produce melanin, since the enzyme is catalytic to melenin production by the process of oxidation (tyronaise is a metallic amino acid with the properties of an enzyme, based in elemental copper, and one of its two functions is to introduce an hydroxyl group reactive with melanin). Your lovely black kitty had a tyronaise deficiency causing the mahogany fading (black eumelanin reduction), but in thermo-sensitive albinism, it's not a deficiency, but a genetic mutation which causes the melanocytes to be non-reactive, since tyrosine's other function is to convert o-diphenol to o-quinone - a process rendered impossible in animals affected by the cytosine deletion which causes albinism to be expressed in tyronaise. Put (very) simply, your cat retained the ability to employ tyronaise in the synthesis of melanin, but didn't have enough of the amino acid to manage full colour production; animals whose TYR gene is void at 975E² by virtue of mutation, cannot produce melanin in any of its three forms (albinoid), or (in the case of leucism, produce so little of all the pigments combined so as to be nearly lacking in colouration).
.

 

[MoonRockyMistyMuffin]

He is not albino, and very pretty! Also love the names, from Warriors!!!

 

[anfepec]

Hi, the cat you reffer as "albino" is commonly named as Lynx red point siamese (his not albino). This kind of cats are caracterized by the presence of the siamese allele with Orange allele, also its possible that your cat have the dilution allele.

Both the Siamese, Burmese and albino are a set of alleles of a gen commonly know as "colour repart".