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Magnetoreception in birds: II. Behavioural experiments concerning the cryptochrome cycle

Behavioural tests of the magnetic compass of birds and corresponding immunohistological studies on the activation of retinal cryptochrome 1a, the putative receptor molecule, showed oriented behaviour and activated Cry1a under 373 nm UV, 424 nm blue, 502 nm turquoise and 565 nm green light, although...

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Autores principales: Wiltschko, Roswitha, Gehring, Dennis, Denzau, Susanne, Nießner, Christine, Wiltschko, Wolfgang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Company of Biologists 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4254397/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25472973
http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.110981
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author Wiltschko, Roswitha
Gehring, Dennis
Denzau, Susanne
Nießner, Christine
Wiltschko, Wolfgang
author_facet Wiltschko, Roswitha
Gehring, Dennis
Denzau, Susanne
Nießner, Christine
Wiltschko, Wolfgang
author_sort Wiltschko, Roswitha
collection PubMed
description Behavioural tests of the magnetic compass of birds and corresponding immunohistological studies on the activation of retinal cryptochrome 1a, the putative receptor molecule, showed oriented behaviour and activated Cry1a under 373 nm UV, 424 nm blue, 502 nm turquoise and 565 nm green light, although the last wavelength does not allow the first step of photoreduction of cryptochrome to the semiquinone form. The tested birds had been kept under ‘white’ light before, hence we suggested that there was a supply of semiquinone present at the beginning of the exposure to green light that could be further reduced and then re-oxidized. To test the hypothesis in behavioural experiments, we tested robins, Erithacus rubecula, under various wavelengths (1) after 1 h pre-exposure to total darkness and (2) after 1 h pre-exposure to the same light as used in the test. The birds were oriented under blue and turquoise light, where the full cryptochrome cycle can run, but not under green light. This finding is in agreement with the hypothesis. Orientation under green light appears to be a transient phenomenon until the supply of semiquinone is depleted.
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spelling pubmed-42543972014-12-16 Magnetoreception in birds: II. Behavioural experiments concerning the cryptochrome cycle Wiltschko, Roswitha Gehring, Dennis Denzau, Susanne Nießner, Christine Wiltschko, Wolfgang J Exp Biol Research Articles Behavioural tests of the magnetic compass of birds and corresponding immunohistological studies on the activation of retinal cryptochrome 1a, the putative receptor molecule, showed oriented behaviour and activated Cry1a under 373 nm UV, 424 nm blue, 502 nm turquoise and 565 nm green light, although the last wavelength does not allow the first step of photoreduction of cryptochrome to the semiquinone form. The tested birds had been kept under ‘white’ light before, hence we suggested that there was a supply of semiquinone present at the beginning of the exposure to green light that could be further reduced and then re-oxidized. To test the hypothesis in behavioural experiments, we tested robins, Erithacus rubecula, under various wavelengths (1) after 1 h pre-exposure to total darkness and (2) after 1 h pre-exposure to the same light as used in the test. The birds were oriented under blue and turquoise light, where the full cryptochrome cycle can run, but not under green light. This finding is in agreement with the hypothesis. Orientation under green light appears to be a transient phenomenon until the supply of semiquinone is depleted. Company of Biologists 2014-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4254397/ /pubmed/25472973 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.110981 Text en © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Wiltschko, Roswitha
Gehring, Dennis
Denzau, Susanne
Nießner, Christine
Wiltschko, Wolfgang
Magnetoreception in birds: II. Behavioural experiments concerning the cryptochrome cycle
title Magnetoreception in birds: II. Behavioural experiments concerning the cryptochrome cycle
title_full Magnetoreception in birds: II. Behavioural experiments concerning the cryptochrome cycle
title_fullStr Magnetoreception in birds: II. Behavioural experiments concerning the cryptochrome cycle
title_full_unstemmed Magnetoreception in birds: II. Behavioural experiments concerning the cryptochrome cycle
title_short Magnetoreception in birds: II. Behavioural experiments concerning the cryptochrome cycle
title_sort magnetoreception in birds: ii. behavioural experiments concerning the cryptochrome cycle
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4254397/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25472973
http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.110981
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