The light-dependent magnetic compass sense of night-migratory songbirds is thought to rely on magnetically sensitive chemical reactions of radical pairs in cryptochrome proteins located in the birds' eyes. Recently Hiscock et al. (Q. Rev. Biophys. 52 (2019) e9, 1-10) developed an information theory approach to obtain a strict lower bound on the precision with which a bird could estimate its head direction using only geomagnetic cues and a cryptochrome-based radical pair sensor. By means of this lower bound, we show here how the performance of the compass sense could be optimised by adjusting the orientation of cryptochrome molecules within photoreceptor cells, the distribution of cells around the retina, and the effects of the geomagnetic field on the photochemistry of the radical pair.

中文翻译：

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自由基对罗盘磁感受器的角精度

夜间迁徙鸣禽的光依赖磁罗盘感觉被认为依赖于位于鸟类眼睛中的隐花色素蛋白中自由基对的磁敏感化学反应。最近 Hiscock 等人。（Q. Rev. Biophys. 52 (2019) e9, 1-10）开发了一种信息论方法，以获取鸟类仅使用地磁线索和基于隐花色素的自由基估计其头部方向的精确度的严格下限对传感器。通过这个下限，我们在这里展示了如何通过调整感光细胞内隐花色素分子的方向、视网膜周围细胞的分布以及地磁场对光化学的影响来优化罗盘感的性能。激进对。