Cats
they are bred to a cat known to be either homozygous or heterozygous. To further complicate
matters for breeders, some apparently non-piebald cats are really piebald cats whose white
bits are so minimal they might be no more than a few hairs in the groin or at the tip of the
tail!
In January 2016, it was announced that piebald patches form when cells fail to develop in the
womb. The gene for white spotting affects the embryo cells (melanoblasts) which will
become pigment-producing skin cells (melanocytes) which make the pigment for hair.
Pigment cells move and multiply as an embryo grows and there aren't enough cells to cover
all the skin, so the animal gets a white belly. The findings were published in the journal
Nature Communications. The pigment cells 'fail to follow instructions' during early
development. They move and multiply randomly as an embryo grows, without complex cell-
to-cell communication sending them in one direction as once thought. The University of
annaabi.ee 
