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Published (Version of Record)CC BY-NC V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Butterfly gyroid nanostructures as a time-frozen glimpse of intracellular membrane development
Science Advances, Vol.3(4), e1603119
2017
Abstract
The formation of the biophotonic gyroid material in butterfly wing scales is an exceptional feat of evolutionary engineering of functional nanostructures. It is hypothesized that this nanostructure forms by chitin polymerization inside a convoluted membrane of corresponding shape in the endoplasmic reticulum. However, this dynamic formation process, including whether membrane folding and chitin expression are simultaneous or sequential processes, cannot yet be elucidated by in vivo imaging. We report an unusual hierarchical ultrastructure in the butterfly Thecla opisena that, as a solid material, allows high-resolution three-dimensional microscopy. Rather than the conventional polycrystalline space-filling arrangement, a gyroid occurs in isolated facetted crystallites with a pronounced size gradient. When interpreted as a sequence of time-frozen snapshots of the morphogenesis, this arrangement provides insight into the formation mechanisms of the nanoporous gyroid material as well as of the intracellular organelle membrane that acts as the template.
Details
- Title
- Butterfly gyroid nanostructures as a time-frozen glimpse of intracellular membrane development
- Authors/Creators
- B.D. Wilts (Author/Creator) - Adolphe Merkle InstituteB. Apeleo Zubiri (Author/Creator)M.A. Klatt (Author/Creator) - Karlsruhe Institute of TechnologyB. Butz (Author/Creator) - Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-NürnbergM.G. Fischer (Author/Creator) - Adolphe Merkle InstituteS.T. Kelly (Author/Creator) - Carl Zeiss X-ray Microscopy, 4385 Hopyard Road, Pleasanton, CA, 94588, USAE. Spiecker (Author/Creator) - Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-NürnbergU. Steiner (Author/Creator) - Adolphe Merkle InstituteG.E. Schröder-Turk (Author/Creator) - Australian National University
- Publication Details
- Science Advances, Vol.3(4), e1603119
- Publisher
- AAAS
- Identifiers
- 991005543681007891
- Copyright
- © 2017, The Authors
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Engineering and Information Technology
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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- 5.38.991 Photonic Crystals
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