ArticleCurrent biology : CB2018
Impact of Yeast Pigmentation on Heat Capture and Latitudinal Distribution.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 84 citations in OpenAlex.
- Radiation-Resistant Microbes: Pioneers for Life Beyond Earth.Current microbiology · 2026Review
- From melanogenesis to melanin technologies.Communications chemistry · 2025Review
- Genetic, structural, and functional characterization of allomelanin from black yeast Exophiala viscosa, a chassis for fungal melanin production.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2025Article
- Dietary L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) augments cuticular melanization in Anopheles mosquitos reducing their lifespan and malaria burden.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Radiation protection and structural stability of fungal melanin polylactic acid biocomposites in low Earth orbit.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Environmental fungi from cool and warm neighborhoods in the heat island of Baltimore City show differences in thermal susceptibility and pigmentation.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Regulation of melanin production in fungi.Frontiers in fungal biology · 2025Review
- Diversity, distribution, and bioprospecting potentials of carotenogenic yeast from mangrove ecosystem.Archives of microbiology · 2024Article
- Metagenomic inference of microbial community composition and function in the weathering crust aquifer of a temperate glacier.Frontiers in microbiomes · 2024Article
- The global importance and interplay of colour-based protective and thermoregulatory functions in frogs.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Weaponising microbes for peace.Microbial biotechnology · 2023Article
- The hypothermic nature of fungi.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Drosophilids with darker cuticle have higher body temperature under light.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Article
- Rapid, high-titer biosynthesis of melanin using the marine bacteriumFrontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2023Article
- Efficient production and characterization of melanin fromFrontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Assessing thermal adaptation of a global sample ofFrontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Review
- Deciphering the Association among Pathogenicity, Production and Polymorphisms of Capsule/Melanin in Clinical Isolates ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Fungal fruit body assemblages are tougher in harsh microclimates.Scientific reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Pigmentation is a fundamental characteristic of living organisms that is used to absorb radiation energy and to regulate temperature. Since darker pigments absorb more radiation than lighter ones, they stream more heat, which can provide an adaptive advantage at higher latitudes and a disadvantage near the Tropics, because of the risk of overheating. This intuitive process of color-mediated thermoregulation, also known as the theory of thermal melanism (TTM), has been only tested in ectothermic animal models [1-8]. Here, we report an association between yeast pigmentation and their latitude of isolation, with dark-pigmented isolates being more frequent away from the Tropics. To measure the impact of microbial pigmentation in energy capture from radiation, we generated 20 pigmented variants of Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida spp. Infrared thermography revealed that dark-pigmented yeasts heated up faster and reached higher temperatures (up to 2-fold) than lighter ones following irradiation. Melanin-pigmented C. neoformans exhibited a growth advantage relative to non-melanized yeasts when incubated under the light at 4°C but increased thermal susceptibility at 25°C ambient temperatures. Our results extend the TTM to microbiology and suggest pigmentation as an ancient adaptation mechanism for gaining thermal energy from radiation. The contribution of microbial pigmentation in heat absorption is relevant to microbial ecology and for estimating global temperatures. The color variations available in yeasts provide new opportunities in chromatology to quantify radiative heat transfer and validate biophysical models of heat flow [9] that are not possible with plants or animals.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.