Double cones in the avian retina form an oriented mosaic which might facilitate magnetoreception and/or polarized light sensing

Abstract

To navigate between breeding and wintering grounds, night-migratory songbirds are aided by a light-dependent magnetic compass sense and maybe also by polarized light vision. Although the underlying mechanisms for magnetoreception and polarized light sensing remain unclear, double cone photoreceptors in the avian retina have been suggested to represent the primary sensory cells. To use these senses, birds must be able to separate the directional information from the Earth’s magnetic field and/or light polarization from variations in light intensity. Theoretical considerations suggest that this could be best achieved if neighbouring double cones were oriented in an ordered pattern. Therefore, we investigate the orientation patterns of double cones in European robins (Erithacus rubecula) and domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus). We used whole-mounted retinas labelled with double cone markers to quantify the orientations of individual double cones in relation to their nearest neighbours. In both species, our data show that the double cone array is highly ordered: the angles between neighbouring double cones were more likely to be 90°/-90° in the central retina and 180°/0° in the peripheral retina, respectively. The observed regularity in double cone orientation could aid the cells’ putative function in light-dependent magnetoreception and/or polarized light sensing.