Photosensitive Magnetic Compass of Mediterranean Magnetic Bacteria

Project acronym: PhotoBioCompass
Topics: marine environment, geomagnetic bio-sensing, photosensitive magnetic compass, quantum biology, genomics
Disciplinary fields: cell biology, microfluidic and microscopic technologies, ecology
Summary: The geomagnetic field provides a pervasive and reliable source of directional and positional information for various organisms to be used as an orientation cue and maps while migrating or homing. What kind of biological compass is involved and how this compass sense works are poorly understood.This project addresses to a fundamental question of biology: mechanism of the photosensitive magnetoreception. Mediterranean magnetoglobules as the model organisms will be used to develop a swim behavior characterization platform, identify photoreceptors and assess the involvement of radical-pair compass in this process.
Project interlocutor: Long-Fei WU, LCB (UMR 7283)
Project duration: 04/15/2018 – 04/14/2021
Call for application: Émergence et Innovation
Photography credits: Photography by AbsolutVision on Unsplash, License