Reflectin

Reflectins are a family of intrinsically disordered proteins evolved by a certain number of cephalopods including Euprymna scolopes and Doryteuthis opalescens to produce iridescent camouflage and signaling. The recently identified protein family is enriched in aromatic and sulfur-containing amino acids, and is utilized by certain cephalopods to refract incident light in their environment.[1] It is possible that reflectins are beta barrel type proteins.[2] It is present in the iridophores and leucophores of cephalopods.[3] There is evidence that the reflectin gene appeared in cephalopods due to a horizontal gene transfer with the marine bioluminescent bacterium, Aliivibrio fischeri.[3]

Leucophore layer composition

Use in bioengineering
Engineered human cells with tunable optical properties
Reflectin structures produced by engineered mammalian cells

Reflectins have been heterologously expressed in mammalian cells to change their refractive index.[4]

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References
  1. DeMartini DG, Izumi M, Weaver AT, Pandolfi E, Morse DE (June 2015). "Structures, Organization, and Function of Reflectin Proteins in Dynamically Tunable Reflective Cells". The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 290 (24): 15238–49. doi:10.1074/jbc.M115.638254. PMC 4463464. PMID 25918159.
  2. Weiss JL, Evans NA, Ahmed T, Wrigley JD, Khan S, Wright C, et al. (March 2005). "Methionine-rich repeat proteins: a family of membrane-associated proteins which contain unusual repeat regions". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes. 1668 (2): 164–74. doi:10.1016/j.bbamem.2004.11.014. PMID 15737327.
  3. Guan Z, Cai T, Liu Z, Dou Y, Hu X, Zhang P, et al. (September 2017). "Origin of the Reflectin Gene and Hierarchical Assembly of Its Protein". Current Biology. 27 (18): 2833–2842.e6. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.061. PMID 28889973.
  4. Chatterjee A, Cerna Sanchez JA, Yamauchi T, Taupin V, Couvrette J, Gorodetsky AA (June 2020). "Cephalopod-inspired optical engineering of human cells". Nature Communications. 11 (1): 2708. Bibcode:2020NatCo..11.2708C. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16151-6. PMC 7266819. PMID 32488070.

Further reading
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