🐦🧭 How do migratory birds sense Earth’s magnetic field? Quantum biology might hold the answer.
🔗 Cryptochrome magnetoreception: Time course of photoactivation from non-equilibrium coarse-grained molecular dynamics. Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2024.11.001
📚 CSBJ Quantum Biology and Biophotonics: https://www.csbj.org/qbio
#Biophysics #QuantumBiology #Magnetoreception #MolecularDynamics #BirdNavigation #ComputationalBiology #Cryptochrome
How evolution has optimized the magnetic sensor in birds
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-evolution-optimized-magnetic-sensor-birds.html
Adaptive #evolution and loss of a putative magnetoreceptor in #passerines: Corinna Langebrake et al. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2023.2308
"there have been significant evolutionary changes in the gene for the protein #cryptochrome 4 and certain groups of #birds have lost it entirely. This is indicative of adaptation to varying environmental conditions and supports the theory that cryptochrome 4 functions as a sensor protein."
Migratory birds are able to navigate and orientate with astonishing accuracy using various mechanisms, including a magnetic compass. A team led by biologists Dr. Corinna Langebrake and Prof. Dr. Miriam Liedvogel from the University of Oldenburg and the Institute of Avian Research "Vogelwarte Helgoland" in Wilhelmshaven has now compared the genomes of several hundred bird species and found further evidence that a specific protein in the birds' eyes is the magnetoreceptor which underlies this process.
How This Marine #Worm Can Tell Moonglow From Sunbeams
https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-this-marine-worm-can-tell-moonglow-from-sunbeams-20231219/
A marine #cryptochrome with an inverse photo-oligomerization mechanism https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42708-2
"The marine #bristleworm #Platynereis dumerilii syncs its reproductive cycle with the phases of the #moon. #Scientists recently uncovered the structure of a #protein that helps it sense #moonlight."
Sensing Blue Light: From Bacteria to Birds
by Mechas
That many birds migrate over long distances is a well-known fact. But reading the book "World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds" by Scott Weidensaul proved to be a true eye-opener. I also learned a fact that really stuck with me.
Read more → https://schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2023/04/sensing-blue-light-from-bacteria-to-birds.html
<p>by Mechas <br /> That many birds migrate over long distances is a well-known fact. But reading the book "World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds" by Scott Weidensaul proved to be a true eye-opener. I also learned a fact that really stuck with me.
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