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Magnetic Optimization in a Multicellular Magnetotactic Organism

Michael Winklhofer ^*, Leida G. Abraçado , Alfonso F. Davila ^*, Carolina N. Keim  and Henrique G. P. Lins de Barros 

^* Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany; Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas/CNPq, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; and Instituto de Microbiologia Prof. Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to M. Winklhofer, Tel.: 11-49-89-2180-4207; E-mail: michaelw{at}lmu.de.

Unicellular magnetotactic prokaryotes, which typically carry a natural remanent magnetic moment equal to the saturation magnetic moment, are the prime example of magnetically optimized organisms. We here report magnetic measurements on a multicellular magnetotactic prokaryote (MMP) consisting of 17 undifferentiated cells (mean from 148 MMPs) with chains of ferrimagnetic particles in each cell. To test if the chain polarities of each cell contribute coherently to the total magnetic moment of the MMP, we used a highly sensitive magnetization measurement technique (1 fAm²) that enabled us to determine the degree of magnetic optimization (DMO) of individual MMPs in vivo. We obtained DMO values consistently above 80%. Numerical modeling shows that the probability of reaching a DMO > 80% would be as low as 0.017 for 17 randomly oriented magnetic dipoles. We simulated different scenarios to test whether high DMOs are attainable by aggregation or self-organization of individual magnetic cells. None of the scenarios investigated is likely to yield consistently high DMOs in each generation of MMPs. The observed high DMO values require strong Darwinian selection and a sophisticated reproduction mechanism. We suggest a multicellular life cycle as the most plausible scenario for transmitting the high DMO from one generation to the next.

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