Magnetically Induced Behaviour of Ferritin Corpuscles in Avian Ears: Can Cuticulosomes Function As Magnetosomes?

Overview

Journal J R Soc Interface

Specialties Biology
Biomedical Engineering
Biophysics

Date 2015 Jan 1

PMID 25551148

Citations 10

Authors

Petr Jandacka

Hynek Burda

Jaromir Pistora

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Magnetoreception is an enigmatic, poorly understood sensory ability, described mainly on the basis of behavioural studies in animals of diverse taxa. Recently, corpuscles containing superparamagnetic iron-storage protein ferritin were found in the inner ear hair cells of birds, a predominantly single ferritin corpuscle per cell. It was suggested that these corpuscles might represent magnetosomes and function as magnetosensors. Here we determine ferritin low-field paramagnetic susceptibility to estimate its magnetically induced intracellular behaviour. Physical simulations show that ferritin corpuscles cannot be deformed or rotate in weak geomagnetic fields, and thus cannot provide magnetoreception via deformation of the cuticular plate. Furthermore, we reached an alternative hypothesis that ferritin corpuscle in avian ears may function as an intracellular electromagnetic oscillator. Such an oscillator would generate additional cellular electric potential related to normal cell conditions. Though the phenomenon seems to be weak, this effect deserves further analyses.

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