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Chromatophores in the skin of a squid. Chromatophores are cells that produce color, of which many types are pigment-containing cells, or groups of cells, found in a wide range of animals including amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans and cephalopods. Mammals and birds, in contrast, have a class of cells called melanocytes for coloration.
The various colors are made by the combination of the different layers of the chromatophores. These cells are usually located beneath the skin or scale the animals. There are two categories of colors generated by the cell – biochromes and schematochromes. Biochromes are colors chemically formed microscopic, natural pigments.
Close-up of fish melanophores. Fish coloration is produced through specialized cells called chromatophores. The dermal chromatophore is a basic color unit in amphibians, reptiles, and fish which has three cell layers: "the xanthophore (contains carotenoid and pteridine pigments), the iridophore (reflects color structurally), and the melanophore (contains melanin)". [5]
Leaves change color in the fall because their chromophores (chlorophyll molecules) break down and stop absorbing red and blue light. [1] A chromophore is a molecule which absorbs light at a particular wavelength and reflects color as a result. Chromophores are commonly referred to as colored molecules for this reason.
Chromatophores may respond to hormonal and/or neurobal control mechanisms, but direst responses to stimulation by visible light, UV-radiation, temperature, pH-changes, chemicals, etc. have also been documented. [1] The voluntary control of chromatophores is known as metachrosis. [52]
Chromatophores are known to only contain three pigments, red, yellow, and brown, which cannot create the full color spectrum. [44] However, cephalopods also have cells called iridophores, thin, layered protein cells that reflect light in ways that can produce colors chromatophores cannot. [45]
The color spectrum is a result of three layers of pigment cells or chromatophores: the xanthophores, responsible for the yellow pigmentation; cyanophores, responsible for the blue pigmentation, and melanophores, responsible for the brown and black pigmentation.
Chromatophores contain bacteriochlorophyll pigments and carotenoids. [1] In purple bacteria, such as Rhodospirillum rubrum, the light-harvesting proteins are intrinsic to the chromatophore membranes. However, in green sulfur bacteria, they are arranged in specialised antenna complexes called chlorosomes. [2]