Structural determinants of avian magnetoreception (Sig03)

• Subject Area: Structural Biology
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 395940726

To achieve a comprehensive understanding of magnetoreception and vertebrate navigation, it is important to characterize the primary sensory proteins in which the biophysical detection of magnetic fields takes place, and to understand how the primary sensing event is translated into structural changes initiating the downstream signalling cascade. In project Sig03 we will elucidate the conformational spectrum of cryptochrome using molecular cryo-electron microscopy and single-particle reconstruction. Analysis of the conformational states of an avian cryptochrome at defined magnetic fields, will allow us to uncover the molecular mechanisms at the heart of this magnetic sensing process.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1372: Magnetoreception and navigation in vertebrates: from biophysics to brain and behaviour
• Applicant Institution: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Elmar Behrmann