Corneal sensitivity is required for orientation in free-flying migratory bats
The exact anatomical location for an iron particle-based magnetic sense remains enigmatic in vertebrates. For mammals, findings from a cornea anaesthesia experiment in mole rats suggest that it carries the primary sensors for magnetoreception. Yet, this has never been tested in a free-ranging mammal...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8100159 2023-05-15T17:59:45+02:00 Corneal sensitivity is required for orientation in free-flying migratory bats Lindecke, Oliver Holland, Richard A. Pētersons, Gunārs Voigt, Christian C. 2021-05-05 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8100159/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33953327 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02053-w en eng Nature Publishing Group UK http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8100159/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33953327 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02053-w © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . CC-BY Commun Biol Article Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02053-w 2021-05-16T00:34:39Z The exact anatomical location for an iron particle-based magnetic sense remains enigmatic in vertebrates. For mammals, findings from a cornea anaesthesia experiment in mole rats suggest that it carries the primary sensors for magnetoreception. Yet, this has never been tested in a free-ranging mammal. Here, we investigated whether intact corneal sensation is crucial for navigation in migrating Nathusius’ bats, Pipistrellus nathusii, translocated from their migratory corridor. We found that bats treated with corneal anaesthesia in both eyes flew in random directions after translocation and release, contrasting bats with a single eye treated, and the control group, which both oriented in the seasonally appropriate direction. Using a Y-maze test, we confirmed that light detection remained unaffected by topical anaesthesia. Therefore our results suggest the cornea as a possible site of magnetoreception in bats, although other conceivable effects of the anaesthetic are also explored. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the corneal based sense is of bilateral nature but can function in a single eye if necessary. Text Pipistrellus nathusii PubMed Central (PMC) Communications Biology 4 1 |
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Article Lindecke, Oliver Holland, Richard A. Pētersons, Gunārs Voigt, Christian C. Corneal sensitivity is required for orientation in free-flying migratory bats |
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Article |
description |
The exact anatomical location for an iron particle-based magnetic sense remains enigmatic in vertebrates. For mammals, findings from a cornea anaesthesia experiment in mole rats suggest that it carries the primary sensors for magnetoreception. Yet, this has never been tested in a free-ranging mammal. Here, we investigated whether intact corneal sensation is crucial for navigation in migrating Nathusius’ bats, Pipistrellus nathusii, translocated from their migratory corridor. We found that bats treated with corneal anaesthesia in both eyes flew in random directions after translocation and release, contrasting bats with a single eye treated, and the control group, which both oriented in the seasonally appropriate direction. Using a Y-maze test, we confirmed that light detection remained unaffected by topical anaesthesia. Therefore our results suggest the cornea as a possible site of magnetoreception in bats, although other conceivable effects of the anaesthetic are also explored. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the corneal based sense is of bilateral nature but can function in a single eye if necessary. |
format |
Text |
author |
Lindecke, Oliver Holland, Richard A. Pētersons, Gunārs Voigt, Christian C. |
author_facet |
Lindecke, Oliver Holland, Richard A. Pētersons, Gunārs Voigt, Christian C. |
author_sort |
Lindecke, Oliver |
title |
Corneal sensitivity is required for orientation in free-flying migratory bats |
title_short |
Corneal sensitivity is required for orientation in free-flying migratory bats |
title_full |
Corneal sensitivity is required for orientation in free-flying migratory bats |
title_fullStr |
Corneal sensitivity is required for orientation in free-flying migratory bats |
title_full_unstemmed |
Corneal sensitivity is required for orientation in free-flying migratory bats |
title_sort |
corneal sensitivity is required for orientation in free-flying migratory bats |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group UK |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8100159/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33953327 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02053-w |
genre |
Pipistrellus nathusii |
genre_facet |
Pipistrellus nathusii |
op_source |
Commun Biol |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8100159/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33953327 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02053-w |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02053-w |
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Communications Biology |
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