Jingjing Xu
Unraveling magnetosensory protein networks in retinal neurons
Jingjing XU, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of Southern Denmark, has received a Lundbeck Foundation Postdoc research grant worth DKK 2,1396,900.
About the project
Migratory songbirds, like European robins, can navigate between Denmark and Africa using a magnetic compass, but which neurobiological and molecular mechanisms do they use to sense the Earth’s magnetic field? Jingjing Xu and her colleagues discovered that the cryptochrome 4 protein (CRY4) is magnetically sensitive and thus likely to be the primary magnetic sensory molecule in the birds’ eyes.
Now she aims to unravel the signaling mechanism of the magnetically sensitive protein CRY4 in retinal neurons. By hypothesizing that distinct post-translational modifications of CRY4 recruit protein interaction partners to establish a protein signaling network that informs the brain where North is.
The advanced mass spectrometry and proteomics research infrastructure at Jingjing Xu’s host institute at SDU (Odense, DK) will help establish novel technologies (mapping of post-translational modifications and proximity-dependent biotin labeling of proteins) and to, for the first time, apply them to neurobiological magnetoreception research in avian retinal neurons which is a part of the brain displaced to the eyes.
This project will provide new insight into the family of CRY-proteins and how these proteins mediate magnetic field effects on the brain. With the extensive use of electromagnetic devices and transmission in society, a deeper understanding of the physiological mechanisms of magnetoreception signaling networks is imperative.
