SKM 2023 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 11: Poster Session I

BP 11.28: Poster

Dienstag, 28. März 2023, 12:30–15:30, P1

On European Robin cryptochrome 4 interaction with membranes — •Maja Hanic¹, Marta Majewska², Izabella Brand², and Ilia Solov'yov^{1, 3, 4} — ¹Department of Physics, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Carl-von-Ossietzky Straße 9-11, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany — ²Department of Chemistry, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Carl-von-Ossietzky Straße 9-11, D-26111, Oldenburg, Germany — ³Research Centre for Neurosensory Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Carl-von-Ossietzky Straße 9-11, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany — ⁴Department of Physics, Center for Nanoscale Dynamics (CENAD), Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstr. 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg

Since the 19th century it was postulated that migratory birds use the geomagnetic field for navigation. Exactly how a migratory bird is able to migrate long distances has become a scientific interdisciplinary question. Recently, cryptochrome 4a from night-migratory songbird European Robin (ErCry4) has been expressed and shown to be sensitive to magnetic field. The sensitivity of ErCry4 to the Earth's magnetic field could be explained by uniform alignment of the ErCry4 protein in bird's eye cells. The possible interaction of ErCry4a with the model membrane mimicking the one found in the outer part of the cone cells was investigated both experimentally and computationally. The experimental and computational results indicate that the ErCry4 does interact with the model lipid membrane. This is the first known observation that ErCry4 interacts with a cell membrane, which could be a key step for ErCry4 to propagate the signal as a magnetoreceptor.