ArticleBiophysical journal2009
Magnetoreception through cryptochrome may involve superoxide.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers.
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65 citing papers in PubMed, 157 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quantum Effects in Evolution: Terrestrial Fine-Tuning of Magnetic Parameters.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2026Article
- Weak Radiofrequency Field Effects on Biological Systems Mediated through the Radical Pair Mechanism.Chemical reviews · 2025Review
- Magnetosensitivity of tightly bound radical pairs in cryptochrome is enabled by the quantum Zeno effect.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Cryptochrome magnetoreception: Time course of photoactivation from non-equilibrium coarse-grained molecular dynamics.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2024Article
- Avian cryptochrome 4 binds superoxide.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2024Article
- Verification of radical pair mechanism predictions for weak magnetic field effects on superoxide in planarians.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Understanding the Red Shift in the Absorption Spectrum of the FAD Cofactor in ClCry4 Protein.The journal of physical chemistry. B · 2024Article
- Structural Rearrangements of Pigeon Cryptochrome 4 Undergoing a Complete Redox Cycle.The journal of physical chemistry. B · 2024Article
- Quantitative measurements of reactive oxygen species partitioning in electron transfer flavoenzyme magnetic field sensing.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- Molecular Biological Effects of Weak Low-Frequency Magnetic Fields: Frequency-Amplitude Efficiency Windows and Possible Mechanisms.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Spin Dynamics of Flavoproteins.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Effects of weak static magnetic fields on the development of seedlings of Arabidopsis thaliana.Protoplasma · 2023Article
- Article
- Optimization of parameters in coherent spin dynamics of radical pairs in quantum biology.PloS one · 2023Article
- Across atoms to crossing continents: Application of similarity measures to biological location data.PloS one · 2023Article
- Long-Time Oxygen Localization in Electron Transfer Flavoprotein.Journal of chemical information and modeling · 2022Article
- Spin-selected electron transfer in liquid-solid contact electrification.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Magnetic field effects in biology from the perspective of the radical pair mechanism.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Review
- Human magnetic sense is mediated by a light and magnetic field resonance-dependent mechanism.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
In the last decades, it has been demonstrated that many animal species orient in the Earth magnetic field. One of the best-studied examples is the use of the geomagnetic field by migratory birds for orientation and navigation. However, the biophysical mechanism underlying animal magnetoreception is still not understood. One theory for magnetoreception in birds invokes the so-called radical-pair model. This mechanism involves a pair of reactive radicals, whose chemical fate can be influenced by the orientation with respect to the magnetic field of the Earth through Zeeman and hyperfine interactions. The fact that the geomagnetic field is weak, i.e., approximately 0.5 G, puts a severe constraint on the radical pair that can establish the magnetic compass sense. For a noticeable change of the reaction yield in a redirected geomagnetic field, the hyperfine interaction has to be as weak as the Earth field Zeeman interaction, i.e., unusually weak for an organic compound. Such weak hyperfine interaction can be achieved if one of the radicals is completely devoid of this interaction as realized in a radical pair containing an oxygen molecule as one of the radicals. Accordingly, we investigate here a possible radical pair-based reaction in the photoreceptor cryptochrome that reduces the protein's flavin group from its signaling state FADH* to the inactive state FADH- (which reacts to the likewise inactive FAD) by means of the superoxide radical, O2*-. We argue that the spin dynamics in the suggested reaction can act as a geomagnetic compass and that the very low physiological concentration (nM-microM) of otherwise toxic O2*- is sufficient, even favorable, for the biological function.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.