Splotchy mice

Waardenburg syndrome is a condition in which affected people have an inherited form of deafness. Sometimes they also have different coloured eyes and a striking white forelock. In 1994 scientists in Manchester identified the gene that is altered in a type of Waardenburg syndrome after discovery of the gene that caused similar symptoms in a strain of mice.

The mouse has a mutation in the same gene that causes this girl's different coloured eyes. Andrew Read, University of Manchester