from The changing rainbow of skinks To Dazzling Hummingbird MetallicMany organisms exhibit vibrant colors created by nanostructures that interweave wavelengths of light.
Researchers led by bioinformatician Aldert Sommer of Utrecht University have now identified the genes that enable bacteria to exploit this vivid phenomenon.
The color emitted is Pigments This is the remaining part Visible Light Spectrum What is not absorbed Structural color This occurs due to the interference that occurs when light is reflected.
The colours projected are determined by the way tiny structures on the material’s surface direct the light, causing some wavelengths to combine and others to cancel out. What the viewer sees changes depending on the viewing angle, resulting in dramatic changes in colour intensity and even a rainbow of colour variations.
Individual microorganisms, such as marine bacteria Marinobacter alginolyticaThey function as nanostructures, able to coordinate with each other to form colonies in precise patterns and reflect specific wavelengths.
“Structurally colored bacterial colonies are living nanostructures that manipulate light, and we have identified several molecular pathways involved in the process of generating them,” Sommer and team said. Write in a paper.
The researchers compared the genomes of 87 bacterial strains that can form structurally colored colonies with 30 that are colorless, and discovered the genetic fingerprint of the phenomenon. Then, with the help of their AI model, the team looked at 250,000 bacterial genomes and 14,000 environmental samples to see what other bacteria have structural color.
Surprisingly, structural color appeared even in bacteria living in places with no reflected light.
“We found that the genes responsible for structural coloration are primarily found in specialized habitats, such as marine, freshwater, intertidal and deep-sea areas.” explain “In contrast, microbes from host-associated habitats, such as the human microbiome, showed very limited structural coloration,” said Bas Dutil, a virus ecologist at the University of Jena.
The appearance of structural color in the deep ocean suggests that the nanostructures likely serve biological purposes beyond blinding observers: For example, they could act as defense structures against viruses or help cells latch onto floating food particles, the researchers explain.
Alternatively, bacterial structural colour could arise simply as a side effect of the way bacteria form colonies.
Understanding how nature creates structural colour could lead to the development of more environmentally friendly materials. Lasting colors It also has other desirable properties, such as lightweight paint for airplanes.
This study PNAS.
