melanin granule

Melanin granules inside the neurons of the LC contribute to its blue color.

Under light microscopy the hairs present evenly distributed, regular melanin granules, larger than those found in normal hairs.

The cortex contains melanin, which colors the fiber based on the number, distribution and types of melanin granules.

Furthermore, it was found that CB reversibly inhibits melanin granule movement in melanocytes.

They have glossy blue or green upper parts, which is due to hollow melanin granules arranged in a single layer near the feather barbule's surface.

Under light microscopy, these hairs exhibit bigger and irregular melanin granules, distributed mainly near the medulla.

In a bird which has two Dilute alleles (the homozygote) the number of melanin granules is greatly reduced, to around 5% of the normal amount.

In rare cases such as Chédiak-Higashi syndrome, albinism may be associated with deficiencies in the transportation of melanin granules.

That is, the presence of a single wild-type allele is sufficient to permit the production of the normal number of melanin granules.

The effect is to reduce the number of melanin granules in both the cortical and medullary cells of feather barbs over the whole body by around 50%.