A magnetic protein biocompass
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Updated: Mar 30, 2026

Rapid Homogeneous Detection of Biological Assays Using Magnetic Modulation Biosensing System
Published on: June 13, 2010
Siying Qin1, Hang Yin1, Celi Yang1
1State Key Laboratory of Membrane Biology, Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
The notion that animals can detect the Earth's magnetic field was once ridiculed, but is now well established. Yet the biological nature of such magnetosensing phenomenon remains unknown. Here, we report a putative magnetic receptor (Drosophila CG8198, here named MagR) and a multimeric magnetosensing rod-like protein complex, identified by theoretical postulation and genome-wide screening, and validated with cellular, biochemical, structural and biophysical methods. The magnetosensing complex consists of the identified putative magnetoreceptor and known magnetoreception-related photoreceptor cryptochromes (Cry), has the attributes of both Cry- and iron-based systems, and exhibits spontaneous alignment in magnetic fields, including that of the Earth. Such a protein complex may form the basis of magnetoreception in animals, and may lead to applications across multiple fields.
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