Characterization of chloroplast iridescence in .

Iridescence in shade-dwelling plants has previously been described in only a few plant groups, and even fewer where the structural colour is produced by intracellular structures. In contrast with other species, this work reports the first example in the genus of structural colour originating from modified chloroplasts. Characterization of these structures determines that they form one-dimensional photonic multilayers.

Light-induced dynamic structural color by intracellular 3D photonic crystals in brown algae.

Natural photonic crystals are responsible for strong reflectance at selective wavelengths in different natural systems. We demonstrate that intracellular opal-like photonic crystals formed from lipids within photosynthetic cells produce vivid structural color in the alga . The reflectance of the opaline vesicles is dynamically responsive to environmental illumination.