Dataset Information

Magnetoreception in an avian brain in part mediated by inner ear lagena.

ABSTRACT: Many animals use the Earth's geomagnetic field for orientation and navigation, but the neural mechanisms underlying that ability remain enigmatic. Support for at least two avian magnetoreceptors exists, including magnetically activated photochemicals in the retina and ferrimagnetic particles in the beak. The possibility of a third magnetoreceptor in the inner ear lagena organs has been suggested. The brain must process magnetic receptor information to derive constructs representing directional heading and geosurface location. Here, we used the c-Fos transcription factor, a marker for activated neurons, to discover where in the brain computations related to a specific set of magnetic field stimulations occur. We found that neural activations in discrete brain loci known to be involved in orientation, spatial memory, and navigation may constitute a major magnetoreception pathway in birds. We also found, through ablation studies, that much of the observed pathway appears to receive magnetic information from the pigeon lagena receptor organs.

SUBMITTER: Wu LQ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3062271 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Magnetoreception in an avian brain in part mediated by inner ear lagena.

Wu Le-Qing LQ Dickman J David JD

Current biology : CB 20110225 5

Many animals use the Earth's geomagnetic field for orientation and navigation, but the neural mechanisms underlying that ability remain enigmatic. Support for at least two avian magnetoreceptors exists, including magnetically activated photochemicals in the retina and ferrimagnetic particles in the beak. The possibility of a third magnetoreceptor in the inner ear lagena organs has been suggested. The brain must process magnetic receptor information to derive constructs representing directional h ...[more]

PMID: 21353559

Similar Datasets

Project description:The invention and development of next or second generation sequencing methods has resulted in a dramatic transformation of ancient DNA research and allowed shotgun sequencing of entire genomes from fossil specimens. However, although there are exceptions, most fossil specimens contain only low (~ 1% or less) percentages of endogenous DNA. The only skeletal element for which a systematically higher endogenous DNA content compared to other skeletal elements has been shown is the petrous part of the temporal bone. In this study we investigate whether (a) different parts of the petrous bone of archaeological human specimens give different percentages of endogenous DNA yields, (b) there are significant differences in average DNA read lengths, damage patterns and total DNA concentration, and (c) it is possible to obtain endogenous ancient DNA from petrous bones from hot environments. We carried out intra-petrous comparisons for ten petrous bones from specimens from Holocene archaeological contexts across Eurasia dated between 10,000-1,800 calibrated years before present (cal. BP). We obtained shotgun DNA sequences from three distinct areas within the petrous: a spongy part of trabecular bone (part A), the dense part of cortical bone encircling the osseous inner ear, or otic capsule (part B), and the dense part within the otic capsule (part C). Our results confirm that dense bone parts of the petrous bone can provide high endogenous aDNA yields and indicate that endogenous DNA fractions for part C can exceed those obtained for part B by up to 65-fold and those from part A by up to 177-fold, while total endogenous DNA concentrations are up to 126-fold and 109-fold higher for these comparisons. Our results also show that while endogenous yields from part C were lower than 1% for samples from hot (both arid and humid) parts, the DNA damage patterns indicate that at least some of the reads originate from ancient DNA molecules, potentially enabling ancient DNA analyses of samples from hot regions that are otherwise not amenable to ancient DNA analyses.

Dataset Information

Magnetoreception in an avian brain in part mediated by inner ear lagena.

Publications

Magnetoreception in an avian brain in part mediated by inner ear lagena.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets