Melanosomes are the specialized intracellular organelles of pigment cells devoted to the synthesis, storage and transport of melanin pigments, which are responsible for most visible pigmentation in mammals and other vertebrates. As a direct consequence, any genetic mutation resulting in alteration of melanosomal function, either because affecting pigment cell survival, migration and differentia...

Protein kinase C (PKC), a family of at least eleven isoforms, mediates numerous cell functions. In human melanocytes, alpha, beta, delta, epsilon and zeta isoforms of PKC are expressed, but uniquely PKC-beta activates tyrosinase, the key and the rate-limiting enzyme in melanogenesis, by phosphorylating specific serine residues on its cytoplasmic domain. To investigate the mechanism by which onl...