ArticleNature chemical biology2026
pH variations enable guanine crystal formation within iridosomes.
Article in Nature chemical biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 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
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Biosynthesis and Genetic Tuning of Guanine Crystals via Metabolic Engineering of Yeast.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Synchrotron cryo-soft X-ray microscopy reveals bacterial interactions with nanostructured calcium phosphate substrates.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Control Strategies in Guanine Biocrystallization.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Review
- When Matter Builds Itself: Blueprints from Life to Materials.Nano letters · 2026Review
- Lysosome-related organelles orchestrate guanine crystal formation in pigment cells.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- The Molecular Basis of Growth Control in Guanine Crystals.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Acid enables biogenic crystallization.Nature chemical biology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Many animals produce vivid colors by reflecting and amplifying light with stacked guanine crystals within membrane-bound organelles called iridosomes. While the presence of guanine crystals in iridosomes is well documented, the mechanisms facilitating the accumulation of water-insoluble guanine and driving its crystallization remain unclear. Here we used cryo-electron microscopy, live-cell pH imaging, pharmacological perturbations and spectroscopy to study iridosome maturation in zebrafish. Cryo-electron and synchrotron-based soft X-ray microscopies revealed that amorphous guanine initially accumulates in early-stage iridosomes in its protonated state. Live-cell imaging with a pH sensor demonstrated that early iridosomes are acidic, with pH gradually neutralizing during development. Inhibiting V-ATPase disrupted this acidification and significantly reduced crystal formation, indicating its role in pH regulation. Our findings reveal insights into the molecular mechanisms facilitating guanine formation within iridosomes, emphasizing the pivotal role of pH alternations in the precise formation of biogenic crystals.
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.