SFB 1372:  Magnetoreception and navigation in vertebrates: from biophysics to brain and behaviour

• Subject Area: Biology ; Medicine
• Term: since 2019
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 395940726

For centuries, humans have been fascinated by migratory animals being able to find their way over thousands of kilometres with a precision unobtainable for unaided human navigators. The central aim of SFB 1372 is to achieve a comprehensive and multidisciplinary understanding of magnetoreception and vertebrate navigation all the way from the biophysical mechanisms to the natural behaviour of navigating animals, covering every step in between. To achieve this, we need to understand how magnetic cues are sensed, how magnetic information reaches the brain for processing, how multisensory navigation-relevant information is integrated in the brain, whether neural correlates of map and compass information exist beyond a lab environment of a few square metres, what the genetic basis of migration is, and how cue manipulations and different sensory strategies affect navigation behaviours and global migration patterns. The proposed SFB is structured into three overlapping and interconnected sections representing the three steps that navigation-relevant signals take within the animal: Signal Detection, Neural Processing, and Navigation Behaviour. The proposed highly multidisciplinary approach is needed to bring about the quantum leap in our understanding of magnetoreception and navigation in vertebrates that we expect to achieve.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• International Connection: Israel

Current projects

• Inf01 - Data management, storage and database development (Project Heads Harfst, Stefan ;  Solovyov, Ph.D., Ilia )
• MGKEdu01 - Integrated Research Training Group Magnetoreception and Navigation in Vertebrates (Project Heads Dedek, Karin ;  Schmaljohann, Heiko )
• Nav01 - Assessing magnetoreception and navigation-hypotheses in the lab (Project Heads Mouritsen, Henrik ;  Scharff, Ph.D., Constance )
• Nav02 - Assessing magnetoreception and orientation/navigation hypotheses in free flying birds (Project Heads Bairlein, Franz ;  Schmaljohann, Heiko )
• Nav04 - Linking magnetic and other orientation cues to global migration patterns (Project Heads Blasius, Bernd ;  Schmaljohann, Heiko )
• Nav05 - A genomic approach to migration and navigation in birds (Project Head Liedvogel, Ph.D., Miriam )
• Nav06 - Magnetic orientation hypotheses assessed for migratory bats under laboratory conditions and in free flight (Project Head Lindecke, Oliver )
• Nav07 - Causes and consequences of variation in the migratory phenotype in a long-lived seabird (Project Head Bouwhuis, Ph.D., Sandra )
• Neu01 - The retinal circuitry for magnetoreception in migratory birds (Project Head Dedek, Karin )
• Neu02 - Magnetosensory information encoding in the retina of migratory birds (Project Head Greschner, Martin )
• Neu04 - Multisensory integration of navigational information in the avian telencephalon (Project Heads Güntürkün, Onur ;  Heyers, Dominik )
• Neu05 - Neural basis of goal-directed navigation in complex environments ‒ Insights from the bat (Project Head Ulanovsky, Ph.D., Nachum )
• Neu06 - Compass and map neurons in the avian brain (Project Heads Güntürkün, Onur ;  Mouritsen, Henrik ;  Ulanovsky, Ph.D., Nachum )
• Sig01 - Spin coherence during radical-pair formation in cryptochromes (Project Heads De Sio, Antonietta ;  Lienau, Ph.D., Christoph )
• Sig02 - Magnetic imaging of putative magnetoreceptors (Project Head Winklhofer, Michael )
• Sig04 - Cryptochromes as molecular triggers in magnetoreceptive cell responses (Project Head Koch, Karl-Wilhelm )
• Sig05 - Cryptochrome-based magnetoreception (Project Head Solovyov, Ph.D., Ilia )
• Sig06 - Understanding function and evolution of cryptochrome 4 through strategic mutations in purified proteins. (Project Head Mouritsen, Henrik )
• Z01 - Central Tasks (Project Head Mouritsen, Henrik )

Completed projects

• Nav03 - Magnetic orientation in fish (Project Heads Gerlach, Gabriele ;  Mouritsen, Henrik ;  Winklhofer, Michael )
• Neu03 - Magnetic map processing in the brain of migratory birds (Project Head Heyers, Dominik )
• Sig03 - Structural determinants of avian magnetoreception (Project Head Behrmann, Elmar )
• Z02 - A genomic approach to migration and orientation in the European robin (Project Heads Liedvogel, Ph.D., Miriam ;  Nolte, Arne )

• Applicant Institution: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
• Participating Institution: Institut für Vogelforschung - Vogelwarte Helgoland; Weizmann Institute of Science
• Participating University: Freie Universität Berlin; Ruhr-Universität Bochum
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Henrik Mouritsen