KIT-related piebaldism in a Chinese girl

Piebaldism is a rare, autosomal dominant and congenital pigmentary disorder characterized by stable depigmentation of the skin and white forelock. Mutations in KIT or SNAI2 genes result in piebaldism. Most individuals with piebaldism have a family history of the disorder. Herein, we report a 5-month-old Chinese girl with severe piebaldism but no family history thereof. She has white forelock and large patches of depigmentation in the jaw, central anterior trunk, perineum and extremities. We performed whole-exome and Sanger sequencing and identified a de novo KIT mutation (NM_000222.2: c.2657G>A, p.Gly886Val) in exon 18 of KIT in the proband. Currently, this mutation is located in the most extreme C-terminal of the tyrosine kinase domain 2 of the KIT gene amongst all reported mutations and causes a severe clinical phenotype. We further reviewed literature on piebaldism and summarized 79 KIT gene mutations that lead to this disease. Our study may expand knowledge on the genotype-phenotype correlation in piebaldism and serve as a reference for genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis of affected families.