Electron spin relaxation in cryptochrome-based magnetoreception

• DOI: 10.1039/c5cp06731f
• Publication Date: 2016-03-16T13:33:16Z
• Authors: Daniel R. Kattnig; Ilia A. Solov'yov; P. J. Hore
• Keywords: Cryptochromes; 0301 basic medicine; Stochastic Processes; 03 medical and health sciences; Magnetic Fields; Protein Conformation; Arabidopsis; Flavin-Adenine Dinucleotide; Tryptophan; Molecular Dynamics Simulation

The magnetic compass sense of migratory birds is thought to rely on magnetically sensitive radical pairs formed photochemically in cryptochrome proteins in the retina. Here we assess the impact of protein dynamics on the sensitivity of the compass.