Glasswing Butterflies
With Dr. Nipam PatelAs a researcher and director, Dr. Nipam Patel helps foster an atmosphere of collaborative discovery at MBL. His focus is on the evolution of arthropod body patterning, regeneration of the germline, and structural coloration in butterflies. Dr. Patel has authored over 130 scientific publications.
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Growing scales of a glasswing butterfly
The pupal wing of the Glasswing butterfly, showing cell nuclei (blue), the developing scale surface membrane (magenta) and the internal actin cytoskeleton (green). At this stage, the straight bristle scales have grown quite long while the scales that will form forked bristles look like small triangles. Both contain straight rods of actin. Their reduced size allows light to pass through the wing, appearing transparent. (Credit: Aaron Pomerantz, UC Berkeley and Nipam Patel)
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