Cryptochrome

Bird migration has fascinated humans for a long time and the question of how birds can find their way on their biannual migratory flights has been of great interest to amateur ornithologists as well as to professional scientists. Migratory birds use cues of a wide variety of different sources for orientation. Orientational experiments with have shown that they use geomagnetic information for identifying their migratory direction. The sun compass in association with the local time, measured by their inner clock, allows them to identify the azimuthal position of the sun during the day. Polarized light patterns, most prominently visible at the sky during sunset and sunrise, plays an important role in orientation. Many birds are also able to accurately orient themselves when the sky is not visible. This requires non-visual sources of information. Many studies have established that birds are sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field. Birds use the geomagnetic field as a compass, and are also sensitive to slight temporal and spatial variation in the magnetic field that are potentially useful for determining location. In honeybees magnetoreception is demonstrated by activities such as comb building and homing orientation. Movement and orientation of organisms with respect to a magnetic field, magneto taxis, has also been shown to exist in plants. However, despite decades of research, the precise mechanism of magnetoreception is still not well understood. During the last forty years several hypotheses were suggested to explain this phenomenon. The main subject of this theme is to study the mechanisms which is based on Cryptochrome.