Endoplasmic reticulum patterns insect cuticle nanostructure.

ABSTRACT: Insect cuticles with nano-level structures exhibit functional surface properties such as the photonic nanocrystal of the butterfly wing scale with structural color and the corneal nipple arrays of superhydrophobic compound eye lens. Despite the enormous influence the cuticle has had on biomimetic industrial applications, cellular mechanisms of cuticular nanopatterning remain poorly understood. Drosophila gore-tex/Osiris23 (gox) controls the formation of nanopores, with a molecular filtering function, on the olfactory organs. Here we used 3D electron microscopy imaging of entire hair structures to show that nanopore is formed through a novel process of bidirectional interaction of the ER and the plasma membrane trafficking. ER-resident protein Gox stimulates ER-phagy through regulation of R

SUBMITTER: Inagaki S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12755865 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature