Exploring the possibilities for radical pair effects in cryptochrome
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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Light-mediated Reversible Modulation of the Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase Pathway during Cell Differentiation and Xenopus Embryonic Development
Published on: June 15, 2017
Ilia A Solov'yov1, Danielle E Chandler, Klaus Schulten
1Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies; Johann Wolfgang Goethe University; Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Abstract:
The ability of some animals to sense magnetic fields has long captured the human imagination. In our recent paper, we explored how radical pair effects in the protein cryptochrome may underlie the magnetic orientation sense of migratory birds. Here we explain our model and discuss its relationship to experimental results on plant cryptochromes, as well as discuss the next steps in refining our model, and explore alternate but related possibilities for modeling and understanding cryptochrome as a magnetic sensor.
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