Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Chemistry Research Laboratory, 12 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK.
Trends Biochem Sci. 2013 Sep;38(9):435-46. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2013.07.002. Epub 2013 Aug 9.
The remarkable phenomenon of magnetoreception in migratory birds and other organisms has fascinated biologists for decades. Much evidence has accumulated to suggest that birds sense the magnetic field of the Earth using photochemical transformations in cryptochrome flavoproteins. In the last 5 years this highly interdisciplinary field has seen advances in structural biology, biophysics, spin chemistry, and genetic studies in model organisms. We review these developments and consider how this chemical signal can be integrated into the cellular response.
候鸟和其他生物的磁感应现象已经引起生物学家数十年的关注。有大量证据表明，鸟类利用隐花色素黄素蛋白中的光化学转化来感应地球磁场。在过去的 5 年中，这个高度跨学科的领域在结构生物学、生物物理学、自旋化学和模式生物的遗传研究方面取得了进展。我们回顾了这些进展，并探讨了这种化学信号如何整合到细胞反应中。
