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Biophys J, February 2000, p. 707-718, Vol. 78, No. 2
Theoretical Biophysics Group, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801 USA
A large variety of animals has the ability to sense the
geomagnetic field and utilize it as a source of directional (compass) information. It is not known by which biophysical mechanism this magnetoreception is achieved. We investigate the possibility that magnetoreception involves radical-pair processes that are governed by
anisotropic hyperfine coupling between (unpaired) electron and nuclear
spins. We will show theoretically that fields of geomagnetic field
strength and weaker can produce significantly different reaction yields
for different alignments of the radical pairs with the magnetic field.
As a model for a magnetic sensory organ we propose a system of radical
pairs being 1) orientationally ordered in a molecular substrate and 2)
exhibiting changes in the reaction yields that affect the visual
transduction pathway. We evaluate three-dimensional visual modulation
patterns that can arise from the influence of the geomagnetic field on
radical-pair systems. The variations of these patterns with orientation
and field strength can furnish the magnetic compass ability of birds with the same characteristics as observed in behavioral experiments. We
propose that the recently discovered photoreceptor cryptochrome is part
of the magnetoreception system and suggest further studies to prove or
disprove this hypothesis.
Biophys J, February 2000, p. 707-718, Vol. 78, No. 2
© 2000 by the Biophysical Society 0006-3495/00/02/707/12 $2.00
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