Dvir Gur

The fresh water fish neon tetra has the ability to change the structural color of its lateral stripe in response to a change in the light conditions, from blue-green in the light-adapted state to indigo in the dark-adapted state. The colors are produced by constructive interference of light reflected from stacks of intracellular guanine crystals, forming tunable photonic crystal arrays. We have used micro X-ray diffraction to track in time distinct diffraction spots corresponding to individual crystal arrays within a single cell during the color change. We demonstrate that reversible variations in crystal tilt within individual arrays are responsible for the light-induced color variations. These results settle a long-standing debate between the two proposed models, the "Venetian blinds" model and the "accordion" model. The insight gained from this biogenic light-induced photonic tunable system may provide inspiration for the design of artificial optical tunable systems.

In the title compound, disodium 2-amino-6-oxo-6,7-di-hydro-1H-purine-1,7-diide hepta-hydrate, 2Na(+)·C5H3N5O(2-)·7H2O, the structure is composed of alternating (100) layers of guanine mol-ecules and hydrated Na(+) ions. Within the guanine layer, the mol-ecules are arranged in centrosymmetric pairs, with a partial overlap between the guanine rings. In this compound, guanine exists as the amino-keto tautomer from which deprotonation from N1 and N7 has occurred (purine numbering). There are no direct inter-actions between the Na(+) cations and the guanine anions. Guanine mol-ecules are linked to neighboring water mol-ecules by O-H⋯N and O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds into a network structure.

Fish have evolved biogenic multilayer reflectors composed of stacks of intracellular anhydrous guanine crystals separated by cytoplasm, to produce the silvery luster of their skin and scales. Here we compare two different variants of the Japanese Koi fish; one of them with enhanced reflectivity. Our aim is to determine how biology modulates reflectivity, and from this to obtain a mechanistic understanding of the structure and properties governing the intensity of silver reflectance. We measured the reflectance of individual scales with a custom-made microscope, and then for each individual scale we characterized the structure of the guanine crystal/cytoplasm layers using high-resolution cryo-SEM. The measured reflectance and the structural-geometrical parameters were used to calculate the reflectance of each scale, and the results were compared to the experimental measurements. We show that enhanced reflectivity is obtained with the same basic guanine crystal/cytoplasm stacks, but the structural arrangement between the stack, inside the stacks, and relative to the scale surface is varied when reflectivity is enhanced. Finally, we propose a model that incorporates the basic building block parameters, the crystal orientation inside the tissue, and the resulting reflectance and explains the mechanistic basis for reflectance enhancement.