Fig. 3: Colias forewings and scanning electron microscopy of wing scale nanostructures. | Nature Communications

Fig. 3: Colias forewings and scanning electron microscopy of wing scale nanostructures.

From: A transposable element insertion is associated with an alternative life history strategy

Fig. 3

a C. crocea wild-type Alba female wing and wing scale structure. The top panel shows the scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of a black scale; pigment granules are absent. The bottom panel shows a white scale, exhibiting near absence of pigment granules. b Wing and wing scale structures of a wild-type orange C. crocea female. The top panel shows a black scale, pigment granules are absent. The bottom panel shows an orange scale with abundant pigment granules. c Wing and wing scales of a C. crocea female with an Alba genotype (i.e. transposable element insertion present) exhibiting CRISPR/Cas9 mosaic knockout of BarH-1. The top panel shows a wild-type white scale, where pigment granules are mostly absent. The bottom panel shows a scale in an orange BarH-1 KO region. It exhibits significantly more pigment granules than the white scales (t5.45 = 10.78, p < 0.001, Welch two sample t-test, n = 10 scales in a single mosaic individual). d Wing and wing scale of an orange C. crocea female where pigment granules have been chemically removed from the distal half of the wing. The SEM image shows a scale from the white region with pigment granules completely missing. The white color of this wing section presumably results from light reflection off the remaining scale nanostructures. e Wing and wing scale structure of a C. eurytheme Alba female. Wing scales exhibit few pigment granules, similar to the phenotype observed in C. crocea. f Wing and wing scale structures of a C. eurytheme orange female. Orange scales show abundant pigment granules, again consistent with the orange phenotype observed in C. crocea. All scale bars are 2 μm.

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