ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015
No evidence for intracellular magnetite in putative vertebrate magnetoreceptors identified by magnetic screening.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 99 citations in OpenAlex.
- Multimodal imaging reveals no evidence for magnetite-based magnetoreceptors in the mole-rat eye.iScience · 2026Article
- Broad presence of ferromagnetism in bees and relationship to phylogeny, natural history, and sociality.Science advances · 2026Article
- A hybrid compass mechanism combining radical pairs and magnetite crystals.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Extremely low frequency magnetic field distracts zebrafish from a visual cognitive task.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Magnetic vector tomography reveals giant magnetofossils are optimised for magnetointensity reception.Communications earth & environment · 2025Article
- Biophysical mechanism of animal magnetoreception, orientation and navigation.Scientific reports · 2024Review
- Magnetoreceptory Function of European Robin Retina: Electrophysiological and Morphological Non-Homogeneity.Cells · 2022Article
- Myths in magnetosensation.iScience · 2022Review
- Conservation of magnetite biomineralization genes in all domains of life and implications for magnetic sensing.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Quantum magnetic imaging of iron organelles within the pigeon cochlea.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Long-distance transequatorial navigation using sequential measurements of magnetic inclination angle.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2021Article
- Symbiotic magnetic sensing: raising evidence and beyond.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Eyes are essential for magnetoreception in a mammal.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2020Article
- Orientation and navigation inHerpetozoa · 2020Article
- Magnetoreception in birds.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2019Review
- Magnetic Strategies for Nervous System Control.Annual review of neuroscience · 2019Review
- The rotating magnetocaloric effect as a potential mechanism for natural magnetic senses.PloS one · 2019Article
- Multi-modal imaging and analysis in the search for iron-based magnetoreceptors in the honeybeeRoyal Society open science · 2018Article
- Lidocaine is a nocebo treatment for trigeminally mediated magnetic orientation in birds.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2018Article
- Review
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The cellular basis of the magnetic sense remains an unsolved scientific mystery. One theory that aims to explain how animals detect the magnetic field is the magnetite hypothesis. It argues that intracellular crystals of the iron oxide magnetite (Fe3O4) are coupled to mechanosensitive channels that elicit neuronal activity in specialized sensory cells. Attempts to find these primary sensors have largely relied on the Prussian Blue stain that labels cells rich in ferric iron. This method has proved problematic as it has led investigators to conflate iron-rich macrophages with magnetoreceptors. An alternative approach developed by Eder et al. [Eder SH, et al. (2012) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109(30):12022-12027] is to identify candidate magnetoreceptive cells based on their magnetic moment. Here, we explore the utility of this method by undertaking a screen for magnetic cells in the pigeon. We report the identification of a small number of cells (1 in 476,000) with large magnetic moments (8-106 fAm(2)) from various tissues. The development of single-cell correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) coupled with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM) permitted subcellular analysis of magnetic cells. This revealed the presence of extracellular structures composed of iron, titanium, and chromium accounting for the magnetic properties of these cells. Application of single-cell CLEM to magnetic cells from the trout failed to identify any intracellular structures consistent with biogenically derived magnetite. Our work illustrates the need for new methods to test the magnetite hypothesis of magnetosensation.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.