| Title |
Chemical Magnetoreception: Bird Cryptochrome 1a Is Excited by Blue Light and Forms Long-Lived Radical-Pairs
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
PLOS ONE, October 2007
|
| DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0001106 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Miriam Liedvogel, Kiminori Maeda, Kevin Henbest, Erik Schleicher, Thomas Simon, Christiane R. Timmel, P. J. Hore, Henrik Mouritsen |
| Abstract |
Cryptochromes (Cry) have been suggested to form the basis of light-dependent magnetic compass orientation in birds. However, to function as magnetic compass sensors, the cryptochromes of migratory birds must possess a number of key biophysical characteristics. Most importantly, absorption of blue light must produce radical pairs with lifetimes longer than about a microsecond. Cryptochrome 1a (gwCry1a) and the photolyase-homology-region of Cry1 (gwCry1-PHR) from the migratory garden warbler were recombinantly expressed and purified from a baculovirus/Sf9 cell expression system. Transient absorption measurements show that these flavoproteins are indeed excited by light in the blue spectral range leading to the formation of radicals with millisecond lifetimes. These biophysical characteristics suggest that gwCry1a is ideally suited as a primary light-mediated, radical-pair-based magnetic compass receptor. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 7 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 2 | 29% |
| United States | 1 | 14% |
| Unknown | 4 | 57% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 4 | 57% |
| Scientists | 1 | 14% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 14% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 14% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 235 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 5 | 2% |
| Germany | 4 | 2% |
| Sweden | 1 | <1% |
| Chile | 1 | <1% |
| Spain | 1 | <1% |
| India | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 222 | 94% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 48 | 20% |
| Researcher | 45 | 19% |
| Student > Bachelor | 32 | 14% |
| Student > Master | 29 | 12% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 13 | 6% |
| Other | 37 | 16% |
| Unknown | 31 | 13% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 84 | 36% |
| Chemistry | 39 | 17% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 21 | 9% |
| Physics and Astronomy | 20 | 9% |
| Neuroscience | 9 | 4% |
| Other | 25 | 11% |
| Unknown | 37 | 16% |