Magnetoreception is the sense whereby organisms geolocate and navigate in response to the Earth's magnetic field lines. For decades, magnetotactic bacteria have been the only known magnetoreceptive microorganisms. The magnetotactic behaviour of these aquatic prokaryotes is due to the biomineralization of magnetic crystals. While an old report alleged the existence of microbial algae with similar behaviour, recent discoveries have demonstrated the existence of unicellular eukaryotes able to sense the geomagnetic field, and have revealed different mechanisms and strategies involved in such a sensing. Some ciliates can be magnetically guided after predation of magnetotactic bacteria, while some flagellates acquired this sense through symbiosis with magnetic bacteria. A report has even suggested that some magnetotactic protists could biomineralize magnetic crystals.

中文翻译：

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微生物中的磁感受。

磁感受是生物根据地球的磁力线进行地理定位和导航的一种感觉。几十年来，趋磁细菌一直是唯一已知的磁感受微生物。这些水生原核生物的趋磁行为是由于磁性晶体的生物矿化。尽管一份旧的报告声称存在具有类似行为的微生物藻类，但最近的发现证明了能够感知地磁场的单细胞真核生物的存在，并揭示了涉及这种传感的不同机制和策略。在纤毛趋向性细菌捕食之后，一些纤毛虫可以被磁性引导，而一些鞭毛虫则通过与磁性细菌共生而获得这种感觉。