Magazine article from our research archive:

Role of Exchange and Dipolar Interactions in the Radical Pair Model of the Avian Magnetic Compass

ABSTRACT

It is not yet understood how migratory birds sense the Earth's magnetic field as a source of compass information. One suggestion is that the magnetoreceptor involves a photochemical reaction whose product yields are sensitive to external magnetic fields. Specifically, a flavin-tryptophan radical pair is supposedly formed by photoinduced sequential electron transfer along a chain of three tryptophan residues in a cryptochrome flavoprotein immobilized in the retina. The electron Zeeman interaction with the Earth's magnetic field (~50 µT), modulated by anisotropic magnetic interactions within the radicals, causes the product yields to depend on the orientation of the receptor. ...

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