title: Guanine-based photonic crystals in fish scales form from an amorphous precursor.
abstract: Starting from disorder: anhydrous guanine crystals compose the photonic arrays responsible for the skin and scale iridescence found in Japanese Koi fish. These guanine crystals were found to form in intracellular vesicles through an amorphous precursor phase. A combined cryo-SEM and synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction study showed the evolution of the crystals in great detail.
authors.affiliation: Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Dvir
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gur
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Politi
authors.forename: Berta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sivan
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fratzl
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weiner
authors.forename: Lia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Addadi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002347:Carps; D003460:Crystallization; D006147:Guanine / Q000737:chemistry*; D034582:Integumentary System; D017785:Photons; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D006147:Guanine