Publications by authors named "Mandus Aldag"
Article Synopsis
- The Earth's magnetic field helps animals navigate, and young herring are shown to use a magnetic compass during migration to feeding grounds.
- Researchers found that the expression of a specific gene (ChCRY4) in herring eyes increases during migration, suggesting its role in orientation.
- The study successfully modeled the molecular structure of herring's ChCRY4 and compared it to similar proteins in other fish, providing evidence that ChCRY4 could function as a magnetoreceptor in herring.
Marine fish migrate long distances up to hundreds or even thousands of kilometers for various reasons that include seasonal dependencies, feeding, or reproduction. The ability to perceive the geomagnetic field, called magnetoreception, is one of the many mechanisms allowing some fish to navigate reliably in the aquatic realm. While it is believed that the photoreceptor protein cryptochrome 4 (Cry4) is the key component for the radical pair-based magnetoreception mechanism in night migratory songbirds, the Cry4 mechanism in fish is still largely unexplored.
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