What is "reflectin"

n. (context biochemistry English) A protein, found in certain squids, that self-organizes into a film of regularly spaced stripes, the separation of which functions as a tunable diffraction grating to produce a range of reflective colours in the animal's skin

Reflectin is a protein originating from the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, which is native to the central Pacific Ocean. Reflectins, a recently identified protein family that is enriched in aromatic and sulphur-containing amino acids, are used by certain cephalopods to manage and manipulate incident light in their environment. It is possible that reflectins are beta barrel type proteins.