The cuticulosome is a spherical, iron-rich structure located in the cuticular plate of auditory and vestibular hair cells in birds.[1][2] Cuticulosomes are 300-600 nm in diameter and are composed of ferritin-like granules that in some cases are structured in paracrystalline arrays. Due to its specific location in sensory hair cells of the inner ear and its iron-rich composition it was proposed to be involved in the magnetic sense of birds.[1] However, physical simulations and calculations showed that it lacks sufficient magnetic susceptibility to act as a torque based magnetoreceptor.[3] An alternative hypothesis suggests that the cuticulosome might work as an intracellular electromagnetic oscillator to detect magnetic fields.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Lauwers, Mattias; Pichler, Paul; Edelman, Nathaniel Bernard; Resch, Guenter Paul; Ushakova, Lyubov; Salzer, Marion Claudia; Heyers, Dominik; Saunders, Martin; Shaw, Jeremy (May 2013). "An Iron-Rich Organelle in the Cuticular Plate of Avian Hair Cells". Current Biology. 23 (10): 924–929. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.025. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 23623555.
  2. ↑ Nimpf, Simon; Malkemper, Erich Pascal; Lauwers, Mattias; Ushakova, Lyubov; Nordmann, Gregory; Wenninger-Weinzierl, Andrea; Burkard, Thomas R; Jacob, Sonja; Heuser, Thomas (2017-11-15). "Subcellular analysis of pigeon hair cells implicates vesicular trafficking in cuticulosome formation and maintenance". eLife. 6. doi:10.7554/elife.29959. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 5699870. PMID 29140244.
  3. 1 2 Jandacka, Petr; Burda, Hynek; Pistora, Jaromir (2015-01-06). "Magnetically induced behaviour of ferritin corpuscles in avian ears: can cuticulosomes function as magnetosomes?". Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 12 (102): 20141087. doi:10.1098/rsif.2014.1087. ISSN 1742-5689. PMC 4277103. PMID 25551148.


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