GNAI3 and ocular albinism: Since results from our previous studies in mice had shown that: 1) Oa1 activates specifically Gαi3 in its signaling pathway [6]; 2) Gαi3 -/- animals have similar RPE abnormalities to those of Oa1-/- mice [7]; and 3) a constitutively active Gαi3 protein corrects the RPE phenotype of Oa1-/- mice [23], we investigated whether mutations in the human GNAI3 gene may cause the ocular albinism phenotype.