ArticleNational science review2020
On the origin of microbial magnetoreception.
Article in National science review, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cross-linking proteomics analysis for reliable identification of MamXY-associated magnetosome formation.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2026Article
- Biosynthesis and function of magnetic organelles in magnetotactic bacteria.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- MagnetotacticISME communications · 2026Article
- The Role of Confinement in Biomineralization.Chemical reviews · 2025Review
- Birds may represent a useful animal model for studying human mental disorders.Acta neuropsychiatrica · 2025Review
- Influence of a 7 T magnetic field on growth, biomineralization, and denitrification metabolism inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Editorial: Magnetobiology and chronobiology: new opportunities for smart phytoprotection.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Article
- Magnetic manipulation of the reactivity of singlet oxygen: from test tubes to living cells.National science review · 2024Article
- A conserved phenylalanine motif among teleost fish provides insight for improving electromagnetic perception.Open biology · 2024Article
- A conserved phenylalanine motif among Teleost fish provides insight for improving electromagnetic perception.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Did organs precede organisms in the origin of life?microLife · 2024Article
- The origins of light-independent magnetoreception in humans.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Review
- Quantitative measurements of reactive oxygen species partitioning in electron transfer flavoenzyme magnetic field sensing.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- Tunable Nanomaterials of Intracellular Crystallization for In Situ Biolabeling and Biomedical Imaging.Chemical & biomedical imaging · 2023Review
- Renaissance for magnetotactic bacteria in astrobiology.The ISME journal · 2023Review
- Microalgae-material hybrid for enhanced photosynthetic energy conversion: a promising path towards carbon neutrality.National science review · 2023Review
- Article
- On the biospheric effects of geomagnetic reversals.National science review · 2023Article
- Linking minerals to bacterial genes.National science review · 2023Article
- Biogenic metallic nanoparticles as enzyme mimicking agents.Frontiers in chemistry · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A broad range of organisms, from prokaryotes to higher animals, have the ability to sense and utilize Earth's geomagnetic field-a behavior known as magnetoreception. Although our knowledge of the physiological mechanisms of magnetoreception has increased substantially over recent decades, the origin of this behavior remains a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. Despite this, there is growing evidence that magnetic iron mineral biosynthesis by prokaryotes may represent the earliest form of biogenic magnetic sensors on Earth. Here, we integrate new data from microbiology, geology and nanotechnology, and propose that initial biomineralization of intracellular iron nanoparticles in early life evolved as a mechanism for mitigating the toxicity of reactive oxygen species (ROS), as ultraviolet radiation and free-iron-generated ROS would have been a major environmental challenge for life on early Earth. This iron-based system could have later been co-opted as a magnetic sensor for magnetoreception in microorganisms, suggesting an origin of microbial magnetoreception as the result of the evolutionary process of exaptation.
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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.