Butterfly gyroid nanostructures as a time-frozen glimpse of intracellular membrane development.

Wilts BD, Apeleo Zubiri B, Klatt MA, Butz B, Fischer MG, Kelly ST, Spiecker E, Steiner U, Schroeder-Turk GE (2017)

Publication Language: English

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

Science Advances American Association for the Advancement of Science

Book Volume: 3

Pages Range: e1603119

Journal Issue: 4

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1603119

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.

Authors with CRIS profile

Benjamin Apeleo Zubiri Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Mikro- und Nanostrukturforschung) Michael Klatt
Benjamin Butz Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Mikro- und Nanostrukturforschung) Erdmann Spiecker Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Mikro- und Nanostrukturforschung)

Additional Organisation(s)

Exzellenz-Cluster Engineering of Advanced Materials (EAM) Interdisziplinäres Zentrum, Center for Nanoanalysis and Electron Microscopy (CENEM) Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffwissenschaften (Mikro- und Nanostrukturforschung)

Involved external institutions

Murdoch University AU Australia (AU) Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Wilts, B.D., Apeleo Zubiri, B., Klatt, M.A., Butz, B., Fischer, M.G., Kelly, S.T.,... Schroeder-Turk, G.E. (2017). Butterfly gyroid nanostructures as a time-frozen glimpse of intracellular membrane development. Science Advances, 3(4), e1603119. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1603119

MLA:

Wilts, Bodo D., et al. "Butterfly gyroid nanostructures as a time-frozen glimpse of intracellular membrane development." Science Advances 3.4 (2017): e1603119.

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