title: Avian ultraviolet/violet cones as magnetoreceptors:  The problem of separating visual and magnetic information.
abstract: In a recent paper, we described the localization of cryptochrome 1a in the retina of domestic chickens, Gallus gallus, and European robins, Erithacus rubecula: Cryptochrome 1a was found exclusively along the membranes of the disks in the outer segments of the ultraviolet/violet single cones. Cryptochrome has been suggested to act as receptor molecule for the avian magnetic compass, which would mean that the UV/V cones have a double function: they mediate vision in the short-wavelength range and, at the same time, magnetic directional information. This has important implications and raises a number of questions, in particular, how the two types of input are separated. Here, we point out several possibilities how this could be achieved.
authors.forename: Hans-Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bischof
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nießner
authors.forename: Leo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Peichl
authors.forename: Roswitha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wiltschko
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wiltschko