Siamese cats and albinism

[Lady Ten]

Somewhere out there in the mists of the interwebz, I stumbled across some reference to Siamese cats being "half-albino" and did a double take. It sounded absurd, but I tried looking it up, and apparently... Siamese cats have temperature-sensitive albinism? It's sounds too ridiculous to be true. And yet this is what all signs are pointing towards, and it makes genetic sense. Anyone know more about this?

[Cobalt]

I did some reasearch and you seem to be correct, Ten, although I still don't fully understand it. Basically the cooler the body gets, the darker the color, and as the extremities are generally cooler than the body, that's where the color is darkest. I really have no understanding of it past that, though.

[railroadcrossing]

The "siamese" gene causes a mutation in an enzyme that produces pigment, the mutation lowers the "operation temperature" (There was an actual term for this but I have forgotten it) of this enzyme to the point where a cat's core body temperature denatures or turns it off. The legs,tail,face,ears,ect are cool enough to allow the enzyme to function correctly. Point cats in cooler climates can appear darker then normal. Kittens are born white because their mother's womb keeps them an even temperature.
Their eyes are blue (as far as I know) because the eyes are kept warmer then the rest of the face.

This gene is carried on the same space albinism is carried, and as far as I know both types of point genes are dominant to normal albinism.
The two variations heighten or lower the temperature. Burmese point cats have a a higher heat tolerance and make the can's body slightly darker then the siamese point's which manifests as nearly white in some cases. If a cat gets a copy of each then they get a nice median between the two.

The eyes in the darker cats will be a little green, since they have more pigment produces in the eyes.