Certain protein complex may be responsible for magnetic sensing in animals

Over the years, scientists have studied that animals like homing pigeons that can use the Earth's magnetic field to orient themselves, but the mechanism of how the ability forms and works are still not clear to the scientists. Recently, researchers from the Peking University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University has identified a protein that aligns with a magnetic field when polymerized and coupled with another well-known proteinhttp://www.cusabio.com/catalog-13-1.html. They think that the protein complex may be the means that many insects and animals use to locate themselves by use of the Earth's magnetic field. They believe that they may have discovered the underlying chemistry, but how to connect it to magnetic sensing is still unknown. Their work is published in the journal Nature Materials. The researchers started from the points other research stopped - with cryptochrome, a light sensing protein that has been identified by some animals. However, the protein is not sensitive to magnetism, the team inferred that it might cooperate with another protein. In order to figure out the puzzle, they checked the genome of a fruit fly which is known to sense magnetic fields. Finally, they discovered a gene related to a protein called CG8198 (Later renamed as MagR). This protein would response to iron. The researchers polymerized the protein and coupled it with cryptochrome. The used a microscope to watch what happened. They found that the protein complex lined up like a needle in a compass as iron objects were brought near. The researchers admit that these findings do not means that the protein complex is responsible for magnetic sensing, but it shows possibility. The protein complex exists in many organisms that have been proved to have magnetic sensing, according to the researchers. They also call on other research group to do other studies about the protein complex to find out whether and how it works in insects and animals. More antibody and protein products can be found here:http://www.cusabio.com/Polyclonal-Antibody/ATL3-Antibody-11098193.html