Numerical tests of magnetoreception models assisted with behavioral experiments on American cockroaches
Open Access
- 9 June 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Scientific Reports
- Vol. 11 (1), 1-10
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91815-x
Abstract
Many animals display sensitivity to external magnetic field, but it is only in the simplest organisms that the sensing mechanism is understood. Here we report on behavioural experiments where American cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) were subjected to periodically rotated external magnetic fields with a period of 10 min. The insects show increased activity when placed in a periodically rotated Earth-strength field, whereas this effect is diminished in a twelve times stronger periodically rotated field. We analyse established models of magnetoreception, the magnetite model and the radical pair model, in light of this adaptation result. A broad class of magnetite models, based on single-domain particles found in insects and assumption that better alignment of magnetic grains towards the external field yields better sensing and higher insect activity, is shown to be excluded by the measured data. The radical-pair model explains the data if we assume that contrast in the chemical yield on the order of one in a thousand is perceivable by the animal, and that there also exists a threshold value for detection, attained in an Earth-strength field but not in the stronger field.Funding Information
- Ministry of Education - Singapore (RG 127/14)
- Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej (PPN/PPO/2018/1/00007/U/00001)
This publication has 60 references indexed in Scilit:
- Bat head contains soft magnetic particles: Evidence from magnetismBioelectromagnetics, 2010
- Radio frequency magnetic fields disrupt magnetoreception in American cockroachJournal of Experimental Biology, 2009
- Critical superparamagnetic/single-domain grain sizes in interacting magnetite particles: implications for magnetosome crystalsJournal of The Royal Society Interface, 2008
- Bats Use Magnetite to Detect the Earth's Magnetic FieldPLOS ONE, 2008
- Magnetic Field Effects in Arabidopsis thaliana Cryptochrome-1Biophysical Journal, 2007
- Testing for the presence of magnetite in the upper-beak skin of homing pigeonsBioMetals, 2006
- Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Study of the Migratory Ant Pachycondyla marginata abdomensBiophysical Journal, 2000
- Magnetite biomineralization in termitesProceedings. Biological sciences, 1998
- Is Geomagnetic Sensitivity Real? Replication of the Walker-Bitterman Magnetic Conditioning Experiment in Honey BeesAmerican Zoologist, 1991
- Controlled biosynthesis of greigite (Fe3S4) in magnetotactic bacteriaThe Science of Nature, 1990