Essential elements of radical pair magnetosensitivity in Drosophila

Autor: Adam A. Bradlaugh, Giorgio Fedele, Anna L. Munro, Celia Napier Hansen, John M. Hares, Sanjai Patel, Charalambos P. Kyriacou, Alex R. Jones, Ezio Rosato, Richard A. Baines
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nature. 615:111-116
ISSN: 1476-4687
0028-0836
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05735-z
Popis: Many animals use Earth’s magnetic field (also known as the geomagnetic field) for navigation1. The favoured mechanism for magnetosensitivity involves a blue-light-activated electron-transfer reaction between flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and a chain of tryptophan residues within the photoreceptor protein CRYPTOCHROME (CRY). The spin-state of the resultant radical pair, and therefore the concentration of CRY in its active state, is influenced by the geomagnetic field2. However, the canonical CRY-centric radical-pair mechanism does not explain many physiological and behavioural observations2–8. Here, using electrophysiology and behavioural analyses, we assay magnetic-field responses at the single-neuron and organismal levels. We show that the 52 C-terminal amino acid residues of Drosophila melanogaster CRY, lacking the canonical FAD-binding domain and tryptophan chain, are sufficient to facilitate magnetoreception. We also show that increasing intracellular FAD potentiates both blue-light-induced and magnetic-field-dependent effects on the activity mediated by the C terminus. High levels of FAD alone are sufficient to cause blue-light neuronal sensitivity and, notably, the potentiation of this response in the co-presence of a magnetic field. These results reveal the essential components of a primary magnetoreceptor in flies, providing strong evidence that non-canonical (that is, non-CRY-dependent) radical pairs can elicit magnetic-field responses in cells.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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