The Pacific cleaner shrimp. Credit: PilarMeca
The Pacific cleaner shrimp has an ultra-thin layer of colour-producing cells on its back. These cells are packed with spherical nanoparticles that scatter light, contributing to the shrimps’ bright white stripes1.
This finding could help with the development of new bio-inspired, ultra-thin white coatings, an international research team says.
Existing chemicals used for thin white coatings are harmful to human health. To find safer alternatives in nature, the scientists set out to decipher how the cleaner shrimps produce their white stripes.
The team, which included a researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, collected cell samples from shrimps’ white body parts and examined the cells using sophisticated imaging techniques.
The researchers identified that spherical nanoparticles inside the cells contain isoxanthopterin molecules. The ultra-thin layers are formed of densely packed nanospheres just a few millionths of a metre thick.
The isoxanthopterin molecules radiate outwards from the centre of the particles, like spokes in a wheel. This enables light to be scattered, despite the presence of dense particles. Such light scattering creates an intense white.
The results uncover an organic and biologically safe material in shrimps that can potentially replace artificial light-scattering agents such as titanium dioxide particles, the researchers say.
