I realize this its a little late to be talking about proteins, but I was reading a lab paper which casually mentioned that the distinctive color of Siamese cats is dependent on a temperature sensitive form of albinism. Research has tied this phenotype to a single point mutation in a pigment gene called Tyrosinase. No one has studied how this changes the protein conformation, but I think it’s really interesting that the protein is so sensitive that a small temperature difference significantly changes the protein conformation.
Wait.. so is this temperature sensitive protein change color when a Siamese cat is in the sun vs in the shade? Is that what temperature sensitive implies in this context? Cool nonetheless!
It means that the protein is only produced in parts of the body which are cooler. So that’s why the ears, tail, and face are colored but the rest of the body is white.