ArticleeLife2016
Cyanobacteria use micro-optics to sense light direction.
Article in eLife, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed.
- Nonlinear distributed sensing of light patterns leads to perceptual distortions in plants.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Visualization of Type IV Pili: Linking Structural Architecture, Dynamic Function, and Translational Opportunities.Biology · 2026Review
- From pond to platform: howJournal of bacteriology · 2026Review
- Algal optics.Physical review. E · 2026Article
- Beyond movement: the dynamic roles of Type IV pili in cyanobacterial life.Journal of bacteriology · 2025Review
- Photosynthetic Bacteria: Light-Responsive Biomaterials for Anti-Tumor Photodynamic Therapy.International journal of nanomedicine · 2025Review
- Engineered bacteria that self-assemble bioglass polysilicate coatings display enhanced light focusing.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Light-regulated chloroplast morphodynamics in a single-celled dinoflagellate.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Cyanobacteriochromes: A Rainbow of Photoreceptors.Annual review of microbiology · 2024Review
- Overview of the bacterial/archaeal supermolecular assembly session at the 21st IUPAB and the 62nd Biophysics Society of Japan joint congress.Biophysical reviews · 2024Article
- EXCRETE workflow enables deep proteomics of the microbial extracellular environment.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Individual bacterial cells can use spatial sensing of chemical gradients to direct chemotaxis on surfaces.Nature microbiology · 2024Article
- Engineered bacteria that self-assemble "bioglass" polysilicate coatings display enhanced light focusing.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- A cyanobacterial chemotaxis-like system controls phototactic orientation via phosphorylation of two antagonistic response regulators.microLife · 2024Article
- Long-term imaging and spatio-temporal control of living cells using targeted light based on closed-loop feedback.Journal of micro-bio robotics · 2024Article
- Visual Functional-Structural Plant Modeling Innovatively as a Compound Eye: Opening a New Way for Advancing the Scientific Cognition of Plant Vision.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2023Article
- Dynamic Changes in the Thylakoid Proteome of Cyanobacteria during Light-Regulated Thylakoid Membrane Development.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Photobehaviours guided by simple photoreceptor systems.Animal cognition · 2023Review
- Light, Matter, Action: Shining Light on Active Matter.ACS photonics · 2023Review
- Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation of the DEAD-Box Cyanobacterial RNA Helicase Redox (CrhR) into Dynamic Membraneless Organelles inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Bacterial phototaxis was first recognized over a century ago, but the method by which such small cells can sense the direction of illumination has remained puzzling. The unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 moves with Type IV pili and measures light intensity and color with a range of photoreceptors. Here, we show that individual Synechocystis cells do not respond to a spatiotemporal gradient in light intensity, but rather they directly and accurately sense the position of a light source. We show that directional light sensing is possible because Synechocystis cells act as spherical microlenses, allowing the cell to see a light source and move towards it. A high-resolution image of the light source is focused on the edge of the cell opposite to the source, triggering movement away from the focused spot. Spherical cyanobacteria are probably the world's smallest and oldest example of a camera eye.
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Registered trials
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.