Talk:Leucism

message: Are leucistic animals truly albino's?  Everything I've read says that leucistic animals are lighter, but not truly albino's.  Such as this story http://www.wcs.org/353624/whitegiraffe about a leucistic giraffe. Suppafly 18:12, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Are

message: I added an image showing Leucism in a Mallard duck
Wonko the Sane 19:44, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Image added 

message: Is there a posibility that leucistic humans exist?
My grandfather was a werry pale man who married  much darker woman, and ended up with 4 sons 3 pale in different ways(one white hair and beard one pale skin)an one with dark hair and dark skin.
my father was paleskinned but had blondhair and a red beard and marrried a spannish lokking woman, i to am extremly pale,what the f.. do i have?
I agree with the artical pertaining to humans.  For I believe the first human was a black man and from him came all people of color including the white man.  Our leaders will not discuss this issue.  It is used but rarely in humans this LEUCISM. (JK)
:There are different forms of spotting in humans, the Waardenburg syndrome and Piebaldism Kersti Nebelsiek 20:47, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  This is probably a case of it - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3062547/Docs-to-study-black-couples-white-baby.html  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.196.243.211 (talk) 03:41, 22 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  human leucism 

message: To Rockpocket
I took your suggestion and looked at the Chromatophore article.  It is very nice.  I may do a clinically oriented article to dove tail with it when I get the chance.Snakevet2003 08:14, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds good. By the way, I reverted your recent edit regarding the skin microenvironment. I did so because it replaced an explanation for why there is a difference (genetically speaking) with a consequence of that. Still, I think some of your content above would benefit the article, you would just need to source it. Rockpocket 08:18, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Chromatophore 

message: Research done and reported by Bechtel in his book does explain why there is a difference.  The difference is not due to the melanin producing cells not arising from neural crest, in fact, some embryologists will disagree with you about the melanocytes not being of neural crest origin as some consider all of the neuroectoderm to be of neural crest origin including the portion that forms the optic cup.  However, be that as it may, if melanocytes from the eye are placed in the skin, they die.  The problem is not due to the different develomental origins, it is due to the microenvironment of the skin.  Furthermore, as I explained the transplantation of healthy chromatophores demonstrates the problem is not due to embryologic origin, but within the skin itself.  I have deleted my explanation above, because I just found that others have apparently edited it and added both false and racially oriented material to it.  This vandalism I cannot tolerate.  Unfortunately this is the third time I have written something for wikipedia and had it changed in such a way as to be inappropriate and offensive.  I think I will not submit anything further until wikipedia allows responses to be locked and unchangable.User:snakevet2003 23:05, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Regarding the editing of your comments above, checking the edit history it doesn't appear to me that anyone edited your comments nevermind added "racially oriented material". The only edits to it were the automatic addition of a signature by a bot . Could you elaborate on what you mean and I can take action against the culprits? Rockpocket 00:44, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  skin microenvironment. 

message: The pink ('red') colour for which albinos are famed is not the colour of the retina but the colour of the iris, which lacks melanin also. Even in albinos, the pupil still looks black rather than red because the inside of the eyeball is dark, irrespective of whether the retina is as black as it would normally be. This needs correcting, please, somebody, but I'm not an expert so I'm not doing it.
Sapphirine 03:12, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: My understanding is that the red colour (which is actually pretty rare in human albinos) is from the blood vessels that line the retina and the iris. In the absence of a pigmented iris and a pigmented RPE, these vessels will be apparent. This give the pupil a red hue in the presence of light (everything looks black in the absence of light!) and the iris a red hue to the the light reflecting from the fundus being absorbed by the haemoglobin. I'll see if I can clarify. Rockpocket 03:32, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Eye Colour 

message: After a long while, Dr. Walden is back up.  I had the opportunity to study under him at LSU and he is pretty amazing.  He is a herpetopathologist.  He has actually done quite a bit of research on reptile disease.  He had a blog and members could ask him questions, but it shut down when the server crashed.  It is now back up at a different location (http://veterinaryherpetologist.blogspot.com).  He has actually put as his first post an explanation about leucism.  Be warned though, he HATES wikipedia.  He calls it the misinformation super highway's drunk lane.  He also has the same discussion posted at hubpages, but this site will not allow me to post the address as a link, because someone at wikipedia has blocked hubpages so his discussion is hubpages.com/hub/Understanding-Reptile-Color-and-Correct-Color-Terminology.
He is quick to point out that 1)the use of the s sound (lusistic) is incorrect and lets people know you are poorly educated, 2) hypomelanism in birds is not the same as leukism, but many sites incorrectly label it as leukism, 3) many of the pictures in this article are incorrectly labeled as leukism, when they are actually pattern anomalies -- the pigeon on the article page is NOT leukistic, it has a pattern anomaly called the speckled pattern. If it were leukistic, the legs would not be the normal color, 4) studies show there is a mutation in the skin that causes some forms of leukism and other forms are caused by embryonic death of the pigment cells, but patches of white are NOT leukism, and these are probably another condition.
:Well, he's wrong that the /s/ pronunciation is incorrect. It's the regular pronunciation--that is, the one expected from the orthography, and also the most common. He may prefer an alternate pronunciation, but his preferences don't define the language. That's like silly people saying, "it's not pronounced veyss, it's vahz. If you say veyss, you're a peasant." If herpetologists generally share his preference, then we can note just that. But it's incorrect to say that one pronunciation is "incorrect", and I will revert any claim that it is. Our job here is not to dictate language, but to document it. 
:There are many scientists who attempt to make Latinate words sound more Latin than standard literary English would have it. There's debate over whether this is snobbishness, a shibboleth for their education, an attempt to be more intelligible to an international audience, or just personal preference of no import. For example, some astronomers pronounce the Jovian moon Io "EE-oh" rather than the literary pronunciation of "EYE-oh". (Neither, of course, is the actual Latin pronunciation.) Most scientists don't really care, and work just fine with their colleagues who choose a different pronunciation. It's never "wrong" to use standard, educated English pronunciation. (And "leucism" is Greek, so if you want to sound educated, perhaps you should pronounce it properly: "LEF-kiss-m", not "LEW-kiz-m". kwami (talk)
::Strongly concur on all of those points, Kwami, and can further confirm that after over 15 years involved with people in the herp pet trade (including breeders of snakes and others animals in which leucism is a commonly desired trait), I've heard "leuSISStic" probably 500 times, and "leuKISStic" precisely ZERO times. — SMcCandlish [talk] [cont]  ‹(-¿-)› 05:16, 13 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dr. Walden is back up 

message: * 
I don't have time to add the material myself, but any editor may email me for a copy if needed. – VisionHolder « talk » 02:02, 28 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Source for expansion 

message: Although the leuc(o)- affix is used in a great many medical terms, I don't see its use here as being "from medical terminology" but rather from the practice of using Latin and Greek in scientific discourse as a whole.Barndoorsentry (talk) 20:02, 29 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology 

message: Does anyone know whether leucism can affect eyesight, in a similar way to albinism but to a lesser degree? I don't mean only in association with pink eyes (which according to the above can occur in leucistic animals), but also in animals with normal-looking eyes. Sorry for the following anecdotal basis... My cat is leucistic (according to my own assessment, but I am pretty sure) and I have always felt that his eyesight is worse than average (though it was much more evident when he was a kitten). If anyone can verify that there is a known correlation, then it should certainly be added to the article. Salopian (talk) 12:50, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Eyesight

message: I'm not seeing a genetic explanation in the article for this syndrome. I was shocked to learn that it could be found, not merely in mammals but in alligators and (in this article) birds. But why? I can appreciate that the specifics aren't known yet. But whatever is known should be here. DNA. Whatever. Student7 (talk) 00:23, 6 February 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Explanation

message: Leucism is a defect in the cell itself with the result of a lowered or lack of pigment. Pigment (melonin) still exists in the body for example the eyes of a Leucistic animal will be "normal colored" black or blue etc. In an Albino the body lacks the ability to produce melonin and the result is a white animal but with pink/red eyes, which is simply a result of the blood vessels showing through. Leucism and Albinism are VERY different, they can simply look similar.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.3.37.81 (talk) 15:35, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Leucism and Albinism are different 

message: Regarding my recent edit.  The page already used dominant white as a reference.  I double-checked that dominant white is a form of leucism: "In horses, twelve mutations that cause leucistic white or white-spotted phenotypes such as sabino spotting or dominant white have been described so far" (Cieslak, Michael, et al. "Colours of domestication." Biological Reviews 86.4 (2011): 885-899.) 
English spotting in rabbits would be another example of a form of leucism that is not recessive.  I'm certainly not disputing that leucism often is recessive (eg Vienna white and dutch marking in rabbits).  I could probably find some examples in mice that would be more notable. 
I've not tried to clarify that strictly speaking the various alleles are only dominant or recessive relative to the wild type alleles. 
Finally, note that IMO dominance (genetics) has a better description of dominant/recessive than the deleted link to recessive allele.  Please bear that in mind if you think dominant and recessive need wikifying.
TuxLibNit (talk) 01:01, 23 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Leucism is not always a recessive trait