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A complex carotenoid palette tunes avian colour vision

Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Toomey, Matthew B.; Collins, Aaron M.; Frederiksen, Rikard; Cornwall, M.C.; Timlin, Jerilyn A.; Corbo, Joseph C.

The brilliantly coloured cone oil droplets of the avian retina function as long-pass cut-off filters that tune the spectral sensitivity of the photoreceptors and are hypothesized to enhance colour discrimination and improve colour constancy. Although it has long been known that these droplets are pigmented with carotenoids, their precise composition has remained uncertain owing to the technical challenges of measuring these very small, dense and highly refractile optical organelles. In this study, we integrated results from high-performance liquid chromatography, hyperspectral microscopy and microspectrophotometry to obtain a comprehensive understanding of oil droplet carotenoid pigmentation in the chicken (Gallus gallus). We find that each of the four carotenoid-containing droplet types consists of a complex mixture of carotenoids, with a single predominant carotenoid determining the wavelength of the spectral filtering cut-off. Consistent with previous reports, we find that the predominant carotenoid type in the oil droplets of long-wavelength-sensitive, medium-wavelength-sensitive and short-wavelength-sensitive type 2 cones are astaxanthin, zeaxanthin and galloxanthin, respectively. In addition, the oil droplet of the principal member of the double cone contains a mixture of galloxanthin and two hydroxycarotenoids (lutein and zeaxanthin). Short-wavelength-absorbing apocarotenoids are present in all of the droplet types, providing filtering of light in a region of the spectrum where filtering by hydroxy- and ketocarotenoids may be incomplete. Thus, birds rely on a complex palette of carotenoid pigmentswithin their cone oil droplets to achieve finely tuned spectral filtering.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2015
ScopusOSTIDOI

Supramolecular Energy Transfer in Self-Assembled Biomimetic Polymer Nanocomposites Based upon Green Bacterial Antenna Complexes

Timlin, Jerilyn A.; Anthony, Stephen M.; Collins, Aaron M.; Montano, Gabriel A.

Photosynthetic organisms use complex and regulated multichromophore assemblies, called lightharvesting (LH) antennas, to capture, concentrate and direct solar radiation to reaction centers that then carry out concomitant chemistry. Nature’s LH antennas are remarkable, operating with high efficiency in fluctuating environmental and photic conditions as well as being assembled with nanoscale precision thus, they often serve as inspiration in material design. The presented work was inspired by a natural LH antenna. We show that a diblock copolymer amphiphile enables the generation and integration of optically dense chromophore arrays, within a biomimetic polymer membrane. The entire construct is solution-processable, scalable and exhibits intra and inter-supramolecular energy transfer in a completely noncovalent design. This work demonstrates the potential of polymer membrane materials in generating spatial-energetic landscapes for photonic applications.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2015
OSTI
Results 76–100 of 263
Results 76–100 of 263