Signal Transduction Model of Magnetic Sensing in Cryptochrome Mediated Photoreception

While migratory birds have long been known to use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation, the precise biophysical mechanism behind this magnetic sense remains unconfirmed. A leading theory of magnetoreception suggests a chemical compass model with a yet undetermined molecular reaction site and unknown magnetically sensitive reactants. The cryptochrome photoreceptor has emerged as a promising candidate site. This investigation numerically models the first order kinetics of cryptochrome mediated photoreception, in order to evaluate its ability to function as a magnetic sensor and transduce orientation information along a neural pathway. A signal-to-noise ratio is defined to quantify the threshold for the functioning of a cryptochrome-based chemical compass. The model suggests that a flavin-superoxide radical pair in cryptochrome functions as the chemical reactants for magnetoreception. Such a cryptochrome-based signal transduction model reasonably predicts the general light intensity and wavelength effects that have been experimentally observed in migratory birds.