No evidence for magnetic field effects on the behaviour of Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: Migratory songbirds have the remarkable ability to extract directional information from the Earth's magnetic field^1,2. The exact mechanism of this light-dependent magnetic compass sense, however, is not fully understood. The most promising hypothesis focuses on the quantum spin dynamics of transient radical pairs formed in cryptochrome proteins in the retina^3-5. Frustratingly, much of the supporting evidence for this theory is circumstantial, largely because of the extreme challenges posed by genetic modification of wild birds. Drosophila has therefore been recruited as a model organism, and several influential reports of cryptochrome-mediated magnetic field effects on fly behaviour have been widely interpreted as support for a radical pair-based mechanism in birds

SUBMITTER: Bassetto M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10432270 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature