MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECTS IN CRYPTOCHROME

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. It has been suggested that the magnetic compass sense of migratory birds and some other magnetoreceptive animals may be mediated by the blue-light-receptor protein cryptochrome. Recent experiments on plant seedlings have shown that the activity of cryptochrome in Arabidopsis thaliana is enhanced by the presence of a weak external magnetic field, confirming the ability of cryptochrome to harbor magnetic field responses. Additionally, cryptochrome has been found in retinal cells of birds known to be active during orientation behavior. Cryptochromes signaling is regulated by the photoreduction of an internally bound chromophore, flavin adenine dinucleiotide (FAD). The spin chemistry of this photoreduction process, which involves electron transfer from a chain of three tryptophans, is modulated by the presence of a magnetic field via the radical pair mechanism. Computational studies of the magnetic field dependence of cryptochromes signaling activity may give insights as to how or whether this radical pair mechanism could be involved in the avian magnetic compass (URL: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/cryptochrome/).