Zebrafish and medaka offer insights into the neurobehavioral correlates of vertebrate magnetoreception

Ahne Myklatun, Antonella Lauri, Stephan H. K. Eder, Michele Cappetta, Denis Shcherbakov, Wolfgang Wurst, Michael Winklhofer and Gil G. Westmeyer ()
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Ahne Myklatun: Helmholtz Zentrum München
Antonella Lauri: Helmholtz Zentrum München
Stephan H. K. Eder: Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Michele Cappetta: Helmholtz Zentrum München
Denis Shcherbakov: University of Hohenheim
Wolfgang Wurst: Helmholtz Zentrum München
Michael Winklhofer: Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Gil G. Westmeyer: Helmholtz Zentrum München

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract An impediment to a mechanistic understanding of how some species sense the geomagnetic field (“magnetoreception”) is the lack of vertebrate genetic models that exhibit well-characterized magnetoreceptive behavior and are amenable to whole-brain analysis. We investigated the genetic model organisms zebrafish and medaka, whose young stages are transparent and optically accessible. In an unfamiliar environment, adult fish orient according to the directional change of a magnetic field even in darkness. To enable experiments also in juveniles, we applied slowly oscillating magnetic fields, aimed at generating conflicting sensory inputs during exploratory behavior. Medaka (but not zebrafish) increase their locomotor activity in this assay. Complementary brain activity mapping reveals neuronal activation in the lateral hindbrain during magnetic stimulation. These comparative data support magnetoreception in teleosts, provide evidence for a light-independent mechanism, and demonstrate the usefulness of zebrafish and medaka as genetic vertebrate models for studying the biophysical and neuronal mechanisms underlying magnetoreception.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03090-6

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