Morphogenesis of Iridescent Feathers in Anna's Hummingbird Calypte anna.

Integrative and Comparative Biology
Liliana D'AlbaMatthew D Shawkey

Abstract

Color is a phenotypic trait of utmost importance, particularly in birds, which are known for their diverse color signals and color-producing mechanisms including pigment-based colors, light scattering from nanostructured feather tissues and combinations thereof. Bright iridescent plumage colors of hummingbirds are caused by light scattering by an organized array of flattened, pigment organelles, containing air-filled vesicles, called melanosomes. These hollow platelets are organized in multilayer arrays that contain numerous sharp air/melanin refractive index interfaces, producing brilliant iridescent colors. Despite their ecological significance and potential for inspiration of new optical materials, how platelets form and spatially arrange in nanostructures in growing feathers remains unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that melanosome formation and organization occurs mostly through passive self-assembly processes by assembling a developmental time series of growing hummingbird feathers using optical and electron microscopy. We show that hummingbird platelets contain air bubbles or vesicles upon their formation in pigment-producing cells, melanocytes. When melanosomes are transferred to neighboring keratinocytes (the cel...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jul 21, 2021·Integrative and Comparative Biology·Florent FigonJérôme Casas
Oct 12, 2021·Applied Microscopy·Deok-Jin JeonJong-Souk Yeo

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