The radical pair mechanism of magnetoreception

Journal article

Although it has been known for almost half a century that migratory birds can detect the direction of the Earth's magnetic field, the primary sensory mechanism behind this remarkable feat is still unclear. The leading hypothesis centres on radical pairs—magnetically sensitive chemical intermediates formed by photoexcitation of cryptochrome proteins in the retina. Our primary aim here is to explain the chemical and physical aspects of the radical pair mechanism to biologists and the biological and chemical aspects to physicists. In doing so, we review the current state of knowledge on magnetoreception mechanisms. We dare to hope that this tutorial will stimulate new inter-disciplinary experimental and theoretical work that will shed much needed additional light on this fascinating problem in sensory biology.

Authors: Hore, P; Mouritsen, H

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Annual Reviews
• Journal: Annual Review of Biophysics
• Volume: 45
• Pages: 299-344
• Publication date: 2016-05-16
• Acceptance date: 2016-04-27
• DOI: 10.1146/annurev-biophys-032116-094545
• EISSN: 1936-1238
• ISSN: 1936-122X
• Keywords: magnetic-field effects; spin chemistry; migratory birds; cryptochrome; magnetic compass; retina