= Premelanosome
A <premelanosome> is an immature <melanosome> whose internal architecture is developing before the compartment becomes heavily filled with <melanin>. In a characteristic maturation sequence, an initially vesicular compartment develops internal striations and then accumulates pigment on the resulting scaffold. “Immature” therefore describes a stage of an <organelle>'s development, rather than a different kind of pigment.
<Pmel17> helps construct that scaffold. <Joanne F. Berson> and colleagues localized processed <Pmel17> to internal <vesicles> and striations of <premelanosomes>. Expressing the <protein> in nonpigmented <cells> also generated striation-like structures in <multivesicular bodies>.<Pmel17 initiates premelanosome morphogenesis within multivesicular bodies by Joanne F. Berson and others>[2001, abstract and comparison of pigmented with transfected nonpigmented cells]{ref} Building the scaffold can thus be distinguished experimentally from synthesizing the pigment that later occupies it.
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