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Effect of nanostructural irregularities on structural color in the tail feathers of the Oriental magpie Pica serica

The tail feathers of magpies are iridescent, with hues ranging from navy to violet and green. It has been previously shown that the hexagonal arrangement of melanosomes in the distal barbules is responsible for these colors, but previous simulation models have relied on average values for the parame...

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Autores principales: Park, Sangkyu, Choi, Jihoon, Kim, Bohyun, Noh, Heeso, Lee, Sang-im
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10032483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36947493
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282053
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author Park, Sangkyu
Choi, Jihoon
Kim, Bohyun
Noh, Heeso
Lee, Sang-im
author_facet Park, Sangkyu
Choi, Jihoon
Kim, Bohyun
Noh, Heeso
Lee, Sang-im
author_sort Park, Sangkyu
collection PubMed
description The tail feathers of magpies are iridescent, with hues ranging from navy to violet and green. It has been previously shown that the hexagonal arrangement of melanosomes in the distal barbules is responsible for these colors, but previous simulation models have relied on average values for the parameters associated with this arrangement (e.g., periodicity), and it remains to be studied whether the actual (rather than averaged) structural arrangement and its inherent irregularities reliably predict structural color. Previous studies using unmodified images for the analysis have not focused on the effect of such irregularities on the color production. In this study, we conducted finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations using actual transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images obtained from the distal barbules of a magpie tail feather, compared the reflectance spectra predicted using the FDTD simulation with those measured with a spectrometer, and found a substantial discrepancy between the two. Fourier analysis suggests that the non-uniform arrangement of the melanosomes within the barbule is responsible for this discrepancy by creating variation in the periodicity. Our results suggest that a simple model in which the parameters for internal structures are averaged cannot fully explain the variation in the structural colors observed in biological samples such as the feathers of birds.
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spelling pubmed-100324832023-03-23 Effect of nanostructural irregularities on structural color in the tail feathers of the Oriental magpie Pica serica Park, Sangkyu Choi, Jihoon Kim, Bohyun Noh, Heeso Lee, Sang-im PLoS One Research Article The tail feathers of magpies are iridescent, with hues ranging from navy to violet and green. It has been previously shown that the hexagonal arrangement of melanosomes in the distal barbules is responsible for these colors, but previous simulation models have relied on average values for the parameters associated with this arrangement (e.g., periodicity), and it remains to be studied whether the actual (rather than averaged) structural arrangement and its inherent irregularities reliably predict structural color. Previous studies using unmodified images for the analysis have not focused on the effect of such irregularities on the color production. In this study, we conducted finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations using actual transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images obtained from the distal barbules of a magpie tail feather, compared the reflectance spectra predicted using the FDTD simulation with those measured with a spectrometer, and found a substantial discrepancy between the two. Fourier analysis suggests that the non-uniform arrangement of the melanosomes within the barbule is responsible for this discrepancy by creating variation in the periodicity. Our results suggest that a simple model in which the parameters for internal structures are averaged cannot fully explain the variation in the structural colors observed in biological samples such as the feathers of birds. Public Library of Science 2023-03-22 /pmc/articles/PMC10032483/ /pubmed/36947493 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282053 Text en © 2023 Park et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Park, Sangkyu
Choi, Jihoon
Kim, Bohyun
Noh, Heeso
Lee, Sang-im
Effect of nanostructural irregularities on structural color in the tail feathers of the Oriental magpie Pica serica
title Effect of nanostructural irregularities on structural color in the tail feathers of the Oriental magpie Pica serica
title_full Effect of nanostructural irregularities on structural color in the tail feathers of the Oriental magpie Pica serica
title_fullStr Effect of nanostructural irregularities on structural color in the tail feathers of the Oriental magpie Pica serica
title_full_unstemmed Effect of nanostructural irregularities on structural color in the tail feathers of the Oriental magpie Pica serica
title_short Effect of nanostructural irregularities on structural color in the tail feathers of the Oriental magpie Pica serica
title_sort effect of nanostructural irregularities on structural color in the tail feathers of the oriental magpie pica serica
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10032483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36947493
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282053
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