The origin of the color of pearls in iridescence from nano-composite structures of the nacre

Snow, Michael R.; Pring, Allan; Self, Peter; Lošić, Dušan; Shapter, Joe

doi:10.2138/am-2004-1001

Cited by 94 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In pearls from family B donors, for example, nearly 70% of the cultured pearls were green but, out of those from family I donors, only 40% were green. These differences in colour among families correspond to the difference in the pigment production (Karampelas et al 2011); structure of the nacre, which is under genetic control, seems also to play a role (Snow et al 2004). These findings suggest that selection of a colour tendency for a pearl could be made possible by using individuals from one donor oyster family rather than another.…”

Section: Cultured Pearl Colour: Darkness and "Visual Colour Categories"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Family effect on cultured pearl quality in black-lipped pearl oysterPinctada margaritiferaand insights for genetic improvement

Blay

Sham-Koua

et al. 2013

Aquat. Living Resour.

101

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-Individual Pinctada margaritifera molluscs were collected from the Takapoto atoll (Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia) and used to produce ten first generation full-sib families in a hatchery system, following artificial breeding protocols. After three years of culture, these progenies were transferred to Rangiroa atoll (Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia) and tested for their potential as graft donors. A large-scale grafting experiment of 1500 grafts was conducted, in which a single professional grafter used ten individual donor oysters from each of the ten families, grafting 15 recipient oysters from each donor. The recipient oysters were all obtained from wild spat collection in Ahe (Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia). After 18 months of culture, 874 pearls were harvested. Highly significant donor family effects were found for nucleus retention, nacre thickness, nacre weight, pearl colour darkness and visually-perceived colour (bodycolor and overtone), pearl shape categories, surface defects and lustre, the last two of which are components of the Tahitian classification grade. No significant difference was recorded between the ten G1 families for the absence or presence of rings. The progenies could be ranked from "best" (i.e., the donor whose grafts produced the greatest number of grade A pearls) to the "worst". Some progenies had extreme characteristics: family B presented the greatest number of pearls with lustre (98%) and a high proportion of dark gray to black with green overtone pearls (70%). These results have important implications for the selective breeding of donor pearl oysters: it may be possible to reach a point where specific donor lines whose grafts produce pearls with specific quality traits could be identified and maintained as specific breeding lines.

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Section: Cultured Pearl Colour: Darkness and "Visual Colour Categories"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Family effect on cultured pearl quality in black-lipped pearl oysterPinctada margaritiferaand insights for genetic improvement

Blay

Sham-Koua

et al. 2013

Aquat. Living Resour.

101

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“…Cold water conditions slow the metabolism of the mollusc, thus slowing the cultured pearl formation process with low rate of nacre deposition or in reducing the thickness of the tablets. Pearl farmers have been able to alter lustre by changing the environmental conditions of culture (Snow et al 2004). The phenomenon implicated in lustre expression on the surface of a cultured pearl is mostly observed through the iridescent colour quality that is affected by the thickness of the nacre layers (Rousseau and Rollion-Bard 2012).…”

Section: Surface Defects Lustre and Gradementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These differences of colour darkness among wild donors may reflect differences in production of a black colouring agent (Elen 2002), where both melanin and metalloporphyrins have been implicated (Landman et al 2001). These differences of darkness among donors could also be linked to differences in the nacre nano-structure (Snow et al 2004). In cultured pearls with thin nacre (<0.80 mm), presence of thick organic matter can darken the body tone.…”

Section: Cultured Pearl Colour: Darkness and Visual "Colour Categories"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of donor effect on cultured pearl quality from a duplicated grafting experiment onPinctada margaritiferausing wild donors

Tayalé

Gueguen

Treguier

et al. 2012

Aquat. Living Resour.

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-Producing high quality cultured black pearls from Pinctada margaritifera is one of the major challenges for the "pearl oyster" industry in French Polynesia. In order to assess donor effect on cultured pearl quality, wild Pinctada margaritifera originating from the Tuamotu Archipelago were used in a duplicated grafting experiment. After 12 months of culture, nucleus retention was assessed and seven pearl quality traits recorded on the 454 cultured pearls harvested from the experiment. The traits scored were nacre thickness and pearl weight, surface defects, lustre, grade, and the colour components: 1) darkness of cultured pearl colour, and 2) visual perception of colour class (bodycolor and/or overtone). Our results demonstrate for the first time that individual wild donors of implanted mantle grafts significantly affect these seven quality traits in P. margaritifera cultured pearls. This finding was repeated in two series of grafts made by different professional grafters. The wild donors could be ranked from "best" (e.g., the donor whose grafts produced the cultured pearl with the maximum lustre) to the "worst". Moreover, we showed strong correlations between: 1) cultured pearl nacre thickness and grade, with grade A showing the greatest nacre thickness on average compared with grade D and rejects; and 2) nacre thickness/cultured pearl weight and colour components (darkness and visual "colour categories"), with the palest cultured pearls (i.e. white cultured pearls) being the smallest (lowest nacre thickness and weight). Thus, one way of enhancing P. margaritifera foundation stocks for a selective breeding program could be to select the "best" donors, using appropriate molecular tools. Generation of selected donor lines from these stocks through hatchery production would be one way to increase the quality of cultured pearl farming of P. margaritifera in French Polynesia.

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“…[29][30][31] In particular, photonic band states, which imply perfect ordered nanostructures, are speculated to play an important role in the distinct colors of abalone shells and pearls. 32,33 However, these unique nanostructures of nacre have not yet been exploited as optical resonators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybridized/coupled multiple resonances in nacre

Choi

Kim

2014

Phys. Rev. B

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We report that nacre (also known as mother-of-pearl), a wondrous nanocomposite found in nature, is a rich photonic nanomaterial allowing the experimental realization of collective excitation and light amplification via coupled states. Localized modes in three-dimensional complex media are typically isolated in frequency and space. However, multiple local resonances can be hybridized in multilayered nanostructures of nacre so that the effective cavity size for efficient disordered resonators is scaled up. Localized modes in hybridized states in nacre are overlapped in frequency with similar shapes in space, thus being collectively excited and synergistically amplified. These hybridized states boost light amplification, leading to stable and regular multimode lasing at low excitation energy. The simplicity of ameliorating disordered resonators by mimicking nacre can further serve as platforms for developing costeffective photonic systems and provide materials for fundamental research on complex media.

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The origin of the color of pearls in iridescence from nano-composite structures of the nacre

Cited by 94 publications

References 18 publications

Family effect on cultured pearl quality in black-lipped pearl oysterPinctada margaritiferaand insights for genetic improvement

Family effect on cultured pearl quality in black-lipped pearl oysterPinctada margaritiferaand insights for genetic improvement

Evidence of donor effect on cultured pearl quality from a duplicated grafting experiment onPinctada margaritiferausing wild donors

Hybridized/coupled multiple resonances in nacre

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