Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Hiscock HG
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4855607 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Hiscock Hamish G HG Worster Susannah S Kattnig Daniel R DR Steers Charlotte C Jin Ye Y Manolopoulos David E DE Mouritsen Henrik H Hore P J PJ
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20160404 17
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 tha ...[more]