ArticleScientific reports2017
The sensitivity of a radical pair compass magnetoreceptor can be significantly amplified by radical scavengers.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Quantum Effects in Evolution: Terrestrial Fine-Tuning of Magnetic Parameters.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2026Article
- Article
- Weak Radiofrequency Field Effects on Biological Systems Mediated through the Radical Pair Mechanism.Chemical reviews · 2025Review
- Magnetosensitivity of Model Flavin-Tryptophan Radical Pairs in a Dynamic Protein Environment.The journal of physical chemistry. B · 2025Article
- Entanglement and coherence in pure and doped Posner molecules.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Magneto-oncology: a radical pair primer.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Quantum theory of a potential biological magnetic field sensor: Radical pair mechanism in flavin adenine dinucleotide biradicals.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2024Article
- Understanding the Red Shift in the Absorption Spectrum of the FAD Cofactor in ClCry4 Protein.The journal of physical chemistry. B · 2024Article
- 'Seeing' the electromagnetic spectrum: spotlight on the cryptochrome photocycle.Frontiers in plant science · 2024Review
- The Geomagnetic Field (GMF) Is Required for Lima Bean Photosynthesis and Reactive Oxygen Species Production.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Effects of inter-radical interactions and scavenging radicals on magnetosensitivity: spin dynamics simulations of proposed radical pairs.European biophysics journal : EBJ · 2023Article
- Cryptochrome and quantum biology: unraveling the mysteries of plant magnetoreception.Frontiers in plant science · 2023Review
- Driven Radical Motion Enhances Cryptochrome Magnetoreception: Toward Live Quantum Sensing.The journal of physical chemistry letters · 2022Article
- Radical triads, not pairs, may explain effects of hypomagnetic fields on neurogenesis.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Magnetic field effects in biology from the perspective of the radical pair mechanism.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Review
- Radical pairs may explain reactive oxygen species-mediated effects of hypomagnetic field on neurogenesis.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Radical pairs may play a role in microtubule reorganization.Scientific reports · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Birds have a remarkable ability to obtain navigational information from the Earth's magnetic field. The primary detection mechanism of this compass sense is uncertain but appears to involve the quantum spin dynamics of radical pairs formed transiently in cryptochrome proteins. We propose here a new version of the current model in which spin-selective recombination of the radical pair is not essential. One of the two radicals is imagined to react with a paramagnetic scavenger via spin-selective electron transfer. By means of simulations of the spin dynamics of cryptochrome-inspired radical pairs, we show that the new scheme offers two clear and important benefits. The sensitivity to a 50 μT magnetic field is greatly enhanced and, unlike the current model, the radicals can be more than 2 nm apart in the magnetoreceptor protein. The latter means that animal cryptochromes that have a tetrad (rather than a triad) of tryptophan electron donors can still be expected to be viable as magnetic compass sensors. Lifting the restriction on the rate of the spin-selective recombination reaction also means that the detrimental effects of inter-radical exchange and dipolar interactions can be minimised by placing the radicals much further apart than in the current model.
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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.