麻豆原创 Department of Biology Assistant Professor Robert Fitak has been studying magnetic bacteria and the role they may play in the animals they reside in. (Photo by Antoine Hart)/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/nThe database signals a step forward in his research and builds off previous hypotheses and analyses published in 2020 in collaboration with colleagues in the United Kingdom and Israel./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/n
In 2021, Fitak continued poring through databases to categorize which animals may host magnetic bacteria and if there are prevalent patterns./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201cThe first study we did was look at existing datasets and summarize where we found this bacteria in different animals,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201d he says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201cWe searched about 50,000 previous scientific studies. Now, we actually expanded that to studying a worldwide database of genetic information and we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u2019ve been able to summarize where these bacteria are located based on trillions of genetic sequences./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/n
The database was published earlier this year in Data in Brief, and it borrows information from the publicly available Sequence Read Archive from the National Center for Biotechnology Information./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/nFitak focused on organizing DNA sequences originating from across animal species that match known magnetic bacteria to assist he and other researchers to narrow their efforts in examination of both environmental and ecological roles of magnetic bacteria or to identify potential host animals./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/n
An Internal Compass?/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/nFitak and his colleagues are using the refined data to identify potential host organisms for the magnetic bacteria and to provide greater context for examining the roles they may play in animals /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u2013 such as for navigation./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201cUltimately, if we have a better understanding of how animals navigate, it/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u2019ll be useful for conserving endangered or protected species,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201d Fitak says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201cIf we know where they/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u2019re going to move and how, it can help us make more accurate management decisions./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/n
He is interested in seeing if the magnetic bacteria reside in regions within an animal so they may sense them, such as parts of the nervous system. Fitak thinks they could serve as a navigational aid for animals or provide an additional boost for creatures like birds or sea turtles already using the Earth/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u2019s magnetic field to navigate long distances./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201cIt/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u2019s almost like a microbial compass and we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u2019re studying how that could work,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201d Fitak says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201cWe think the animals already use the Earth/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u2019s magnetic field like a compass./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/142191/n
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