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the blue fruit of mediterranean fans. Photo Source: Rox Middleton
blue fruit is very rare because pigment compounds that make the fruit blue are not common in nature. But one of Europe's most popular garden plants, the metallic blue fruit of Mediterranean fans, has this color and is in a special way.
, unlike relying solely on pigments, these fruits use structural colors to reflect blue light, which is rare in plants. On August 6th researchers reported in the journal Current Biology that the lipid nanostructures of these fruit cell walls give them an amazing color that may tell birds that these fruits are rich in nutrients and fats.
" structural colors are common in animals, especially birds, beetles and butterflies, but are found only in the fruits of a few plants. Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder and co-author of the paper, said, "This means that Mediterranean fans, in addition to exhibiting a completely novel structural color mechanism, are one of the few known fruits with structural colors." Silvia vignolini
a physical chemist at the University of Cambridge in the UK, has been interested in the plant for nearly a decade. I found this plant in a garden in Italy, they look strange, we did the test, but did not come to a conclusion. It's been haunting my mind. She said. As the team grew, they became more and more interested in Mediterranean fans, and eventually they used electron microscopes to examine the structure of the fruit.
"We only saw these spots until we got these images. "We were very excited when we found out that the spots were lipids.
Most plant cell walls are made up of cellulose, which can be used to make cotton and paper, while the cell walls of Mediterranean fruit cells are much thicker, layered with thousands of sputum lipids that reflect blue light. This so-called lipid multi-layer structure gives the fruit a bright blue color without blue pigment.
", because sputum lipids in this arrangement are rarely seen on cell walls, which are usually stored inside the cells and used for transport. Lead author Rox Middleton, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK, said: "We also think that this lipid may give fruit nutrients. This means that the fruit can demonstrate its nutritional value by showing a beautiful, shiny blue color. Middleton is a physics expert who studied the optical reactions of fruit during his Ph.D.
this extra nutrient is important for the main "consumer" of Mediterranean pods, birds that spread plant seeds. Although researchers are not sure whether the lipids are consumed by birds as a source of fat, there is reason to believe that they may be. If so, the researchers believe that the metallic blue produced by multiple layers of lipids could show birds that the fruit is nutritious enough to eat. "While birds have been shown to like blue fruits, the other blue fruits we studied have little nutritional value," Vignolini said. "
, the researchers wanted to understand how common blue structural colors are in fruits to understand their ecological significance." We now realize that these spots can be seen in some old electron microscope photographs from other plants. The researchers didn't know at the time that they were lipids, or that lipids could even form this structure, but our research suggests that they are likely to be, meaning that the structure may not be limited to genus pods. Vignolini said.
addition, understanding how Mediterranean fans use this unique mechanism to make colors may have an impact on how people color their food. "There are a lot of problems with food dyeing," Vignolini said. She added that once the rationale is better understood, it could be used to create a healthier, more sustainable food colorant.
vignolini is excited that his initial instincts have paid off: "I've been doing this kind of photon structure research for quite some time, and I'm starting to think there's no new way to do that. "But what we found was much more than expected. For
paper information: