Abstract
The flavoprotein CRYPTOCHROME (CRY) is now generally believed to be a magnetosensor, providing geomagnetic information via a quantum effect on a light-initiated radical pair reaction. Whilst there is considerable physical and behavioural data to support this view, the precise molecular basis of animal magnetosensitivity remains frustratingly unknown. A key reason for this is the difficulty in combining molecular and behavioural biological experiments with the sciences of magnetics and spin chemistry. In this review, we highlight work that has utilised the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, which provides a highly tractable genetic model system that offers many advantages for the study of magnetosensitivity. Using this “living test-tube”, significant progress has been made in elucidating the molecular basis of CRY-dependent magnetosensitivity.
Highlights
Cryptochrome-DependentThe precise biophysical origin of animal magnetoreception remains unclear
1970s, following the discovery that electron transfer and related processes can generate a pair of radicals with properties that can be affected by exposure to a magnetic field (MF) [1]
This was based on the fact that the photochemistry of CRY is mediated by the photoexcitation of a bound cofactor, flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), and a subsequent electron transfer to FAD from a chain of neighbouring tryptophan residues, generating a radical pair (RP) consisting of a flavin semiquinone (FAD− ) and an oxidised Trp (TrpH+ ) [3]
Summary
The precise biophysical origin of animal magnetoreception remains unclear. The radical pair mechanism (RPM) hypothesis of magnetoreception was first posited in the late. The expanded region shows the of a Drosophila larva, with central nervous system (CNS) shown in blue. All animals so far studied, from insects through to birds, seemingly share this ability, indicative perhaps that magnetosensitivity is a primitive sense. It seems probable that in animals (including the Monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus) that do navigate, this sense has been further refined to provide magnetosensitivity and to act as a compass. Regardless of this objection, Drosophila provides a highly tractable “living test-tube” to explore the mechanistic basis of magnetosensitivity in a biological system
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