Common variation in the TYR gene (encoding tyrosinase) has been implicated in relatively mild forms of albinism since the early 1990s.11–13 We have recently shown that the presence of haplotypes that include specific alleles of three common TYR variants has similar effects to rare sequence alterations that have high penetrance.8 These three common variants are. The gene discussed is TYR; the disease is albinism.