期刊
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
卷 113, 期 17, 页码 4634-4639出版社
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1600341113
关键词
magnetic compass; magnetoreception; migratory birds; quantum biology; radical pair mechanism
资金
- European Research Council (ERC) [340451]
- US Air Force (USAF) Office of Scientific Research (Air Force Materiel Command) [FA9550-14-1-0095]
- Electromagnetic Fields Biological Research Trust
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [GRK 1885]
- Volkswagenstiftung (Lichtenberg Professur)
- European Research Council (ERC) [340451] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
Migratory birds have a light-dependent magnetic compass, the mechanism of which is thought to involve radical pairs formed photochemically in cryptochrome proteins in the retina. Theoretical descriptions of this compass have thus far been unable to account for the high precision with which birds are able to detect the direction of the Earth's magnetic field. Here we use coherent spin dynamics simulations to explore the behavior of realistic models of cryptochrome-based radical pairs. We show that when the spin coherence persists for longer than a few microseconds, the output of the sensor contains a sharp feature, referred to as a spike. The spike arises from avoided crossings of the quantum mechanical spin energy-levels of radicals formed in cryptochromes. Such a feature could deliver a heading precision sufficient to explain the navigational behavior of migratory birds in the wild. Our results (i) afford new insights into radical pair magneto-reception, (ii) suggest ways in which the performance of the compass could have been optimized by evolution, (iii) may provide the beginnings of an explanation for the magnetic disorientation of migratory birds exposed to anthropogenic electromagnetic noise, and (iv) suggest that radical pair magnetoreception may be more of a quantum biology phenomenon than previously realized.
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