Meeting Abstract
Although numerous animals are known to use Earth’s magnetic field for orientation and navigation, the underlying mechanism of this magnetic sense remains poorly understood. In trout, we previously showed that a magnetic pulse elicits gene expression changes in the brain, whereas this same pulse had little effect in the retina. This result suggested that the brain may be a possible location of a magnetoreceptor and that genes associated with iron regulation (e.g. frim) and the development and repair of photoreceptive structures (e.g. crygm3, purp, crabp1) are possibly associated with a magnetic sense. Further characterization of these candidate genes is necessary to understand their potential role in a magnetic sense. In this study, we examined changes in the expression of various candidate genes and those involved in iron regulation in the brain of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) after exposure to the same magnetic pulse. We quantified gene expression relative to control fish across eight timepoints in a 48 h window (10 m, 30 m, 1 h, 3 h, 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h) using a novel, high-throughput gene counting technology. The results discussed provide important details regarding the potential role of cellular iron regulation and photoreceptive structures in the salmonid magnetic sense.
