What is it about?
Green hue is ubiquitous in terrestrial insects and other arthropods, allowing them to blend into foliage. The mystery behind their disguise has finally been unraveled owing to isolation of a unique water-soluble green protein from the integument of bush cricket Tettigonia cantans. This protein binds a yellow carotenoid and a blue bilin within its hydrophobic cavity, as revealed by X-ray crystallography. The spectral superposition of these pigments produces an emerald-green hue. Remarkably, spectrally similar proteins are found in unrelated insects and spiders, indicating their independent emergence in the evolution.
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Why is it important?
The discovery sheds light on the evolutionary adaptations of the biochemical mechanism underlying green body coloration and how specific proteins can acquire new functional roles in nature. The structure of the green protein from bush cricket became the first for the large family of proteins and represents a novel protein fold, with the unique set of embedded chromophores.
Perspectives
The discovered green protein could have chemical engineering applications, whereas the biochemical mechanism of insect coloration can tentatively be targeted for pest control.
Nikolai Sluchanko
Federal Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A green dichromophoric protein enabling foliage mimicry in arthropods, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2502567122.
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