Scientists unravel bird magnetic sense

[scruffy]

It's a protein. (Who'd-a-thunk).

Called cryptochrome 4.

Nice evolutionary detail in this paper.

How evolution has optimized the magnetic sensor in birds

Migratory birds are able to navigate and orientate with astonishing accuracy using various mechanisms, including a magnetic compass. A team led by biologists Dr. Corinna Langebrake and Prof. Dr. Miriam Liedvogel from the University of Oldenburg and the Institute of Avian Research "Vogelwarte...

phys.org

Now they have to figure out how c4 conformational changes result in nerve impulses. (Hint: it probably binds with transmembrane ion channels)

 

[luiza]

Remove Cryptochrome 4 from your sample bird and we could breed Ostriches in the UK .

You need to understand C4s more in terms of photoreceptor cells than proteins . Makes it more relatable to the animals picking up on magnetic fields and their gradients etc

 

[scruffy]

Remove Cryptochrome 4 from your sample bird and we could breed Ostriches in the UK .

You need to understand C4s more in terms of photoreceptor cells than proteins . Makes it more relatable to the animals picking up on magnetic fields and their gradients etc

Magnetic sensitivity of cryptochrome 4 from a migratory songbird - Nature

Cryptochrome 4 from the night-migratory European robin displays magnetically sensitive photochemistry in vitro, in which four successive flavin–tryptophan radical pairs generate magnetic-field effects and stabilize potential signalling states.

www.nature.com

 

[scruffy]

Direct Interaction of Avian Cryptochrome 4 with a Cone Specific G-Protein

Background: Night-migratory birds sense the Earth’s magnetic field by an unknown molecular mechanism. Theoretical and experimental evidence support the hypothesis that the light-induced formation of a radical-pair in European robin cryptochrome ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov