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No evidence for intracellular magnetite in putative vertebrate magnetoreceptors identified by magnetic screening

2014; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 112; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1073/pnas.1407915112

1091-6490

Nathaniel B. Edelman, Tanja Fritz, Simon Nimpf, Paul Pichler, Mattias Lauwers, R. W. Hickman, Artemis Papadaki-Anastasopoulou, Lyubov Ushakova, Thomas Heuser, Guenter P. Resch, Martin Saunders, Jeremy Shaw, David A. Keays,

Physiological and biochemical adaptations

Significance The list of animals that use the Earth’s magnetic field as a navigation tool is long and diverse; however, the cells responsible for transducing magnetic information into a neuronal impulse have not been discovered. One hypothesis argues that these cells use an iron oxide called magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ). Here, we use a “magnetoscope” coupled with single-cell correlative light and electron microscopy to identify candidate magnetoreceptors in the pigeon and trout. We report that a small percentage of cells in both species appear to have large magnetic moments, but they do not contain biogenic magnetite. Our work illustrates the need for technological innovation if the true magnetoreceptors are to be found.