Question: How does somebody become an albino?

Heather Eyre answered on 18 Jun 2013:

Albino is a lack of pigments, including melanin.

On a simple level blue eyes are an albino trait, as people with blue eyes lack the colour of the ‘brown’ pigment. But to be fully albino a person lacks pigment in the skin and hair too.

I’ll explain eye colour first: everyone as two copies of the gene for eye colour – one from your Mum and one from your Dad. Different versions of the eye colour gene are called alleles – for example Blue, Brown, Green or Hazel.

Brown is a dominant allele, that means you only need one copy of the brown gene to have brown eyes as that one gene is capable of making enough of the brown colour.

Blue eyes are the opposite – it’s recessive and you need to blue genes to have blue eyes., so you have no genes making any brown colouring which leaves the eyes blue.

It’s the same process in the skin and hair colour, only there are more genes involved. It’s all a result of not being able to make pigments.

Have a look for the albino peacock its amazing! Different pigments (colours) involved but the same outcome – a lack of pigments.