title: The Radical-Pair Mechanism of Magnetoreception.
abstract: 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 centers 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 interdisciplinary experimental and theoretical work that will shed much-needed additional light on this fascinating problem in sensory biology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QZ, United Kingdom; email: peter.hore@chem.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Hore
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biologie und Umweltwissenschaften, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, DE-26111 Oldenburg, Germany; email: henrik.mouritsen@uni-oldenburg.de.|Research Centre for Neurosensory Sciences, University of Oldenburg, DE-26111 Oldenburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mouritsen
mesh_terms: D025041:Animal Migration; D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology; D056931:Cryptochromes / Q000378:metabolism*; D005609:Free Radicals / Q000378:metabolism; D060526:Magnetic Fields; D012160:Retina / Q000378:metabolism; D013028:Space Perception
chemical_list: D056931:Cryptochromes; D005609:Free Radicals
keywords: cryptochrome; magnetic compass; magnetic-field effects; migratory birds; retina; spin chemistry