Monarch butterflies reveal a novel way in which animals sense the Earth's magnetic field
Building on prior investigation into the biological mechanisms through which monarch butterflies are able to migrate up to 2,000 miles from eastern North America to a particular forest in Mexico each year, neurobiologists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) have linked two related photoreceptor proteins found in butterflies to animal navigation using the Earth's magnetic field. The work by Steven Reppert, MD, professor and chair of neurobiology at UMMS; Robert Gegear, PhD, research assistant professor of neurobiology; Lauren Foley, BS; and Amy Casselman, PhD, is described in the paper, "Animal cryptochromes mediate magnetoreception by an unconventional photochemical mechanism," to be posted on-line in the journal Nature January 24.