Meeting Abstract

89.4  Friday, Jan. 7  Squid reflectins and photonic self-assembly: a transcriptomic approach SWEENEY, A.M.*; HOLT, A.L.; HOWELL, A.; SHANER, N.C.; MORSE, D.E.; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara sweeney@lifesci.ucsb.edu

Reflectins are a family of proteins that are intrinsically unstructured and characterized by repeated methionine-rich “reflectin motifs” interspersed between stretches of amino acids with no predicted or observed secondary structure. This protein family had been shown previously to be the most prevalent component of the light organ reflector of the bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes, and in the dynamic dermal iridocytes in Loligo opalescens. However, reflective structures with a fascinating diversity of photonic designs and myriad optical roles are observed throughout the cephalopods, in eyes, mantle, ink sac, and photophores, among other organs. Here we show that reflectins are ubiquitous throughout the varied photonic structures in cephalopods and play important roles in a varied array of optical components. The biochemical composition of the reflectins varies with photonic structure, and an investigation of their biophysical properties provides clues to the self-assembly mechanisms that have evolved to build these structures. Since technological mimicry of biophotonic structures is currently limited to variations on thin-film and modified opal assembly techniques, these novel squid-based assembly mechanisms could provide inspiration for new approaches to fabrication of devices active in the visible spectrum.