MITF and deafness: There is substantial precedent for genes that affect inner ear function also affecting canine coat color: certain mutations in and around the microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) [13] and PMEL (also known as SILV) [10] genes, which are responsible for the piebald and merle coat patterns (respectively), cause varying degrees of deafness due to insufficient pigment expression in specialized hairs in the inner ear [10, 68].