Curated Optogenetic Publication Database

Abstract: UVR8 is the only known plant photoreceptor that mediates light responses to UV-B (280-315 nm) of the solar spectrum. UVR8 perceives a UV-B signal via light-induced dimer dissociation, which triggers a wide range of cellular responses involved in photomorphogenesis and photoprotection. Two recent crystal structures of Arabidopsis thaliana UVR8 (AtUVR8) have revealed unusual clustering of UV-B-absorbing Trp pigments at the dimer interface and provided a structural framework for further mechanistic investigation. This review summarizes recent advances in spectroscopic, computational and crystallographic studies on UVR8 that are directed toward full understanding of UV-B perception at the molecular level.

Abstract: The Light-Oxygen-Voltage domain family of proteins is widespread in biology where they impart sensory responses to signal transduction domains. The small, light responsive LOV modules offer a novel platform for the construction of optogenetic tools. Currently, the design and implementation of these devices is partially hindered by a lack of understanding of how light drives allosteric changes in protein conformation to activate diverse signal transduction domains. Further, divergent photocycle properties amongst LOV family members complicate construction of highly sensitive devices with fast on/off kinetics. In the present review we discuss the history of LOV domain research with primary emphasis on tuning LOV domain chemistry and signal transduction to allow for improved optogenetic tools.

Abstract: In this review, we discuss new emerging medical applications of the rapidly evolving field of mammalian synthetic biology. We start with simple mammalian synthetic biological components and move towards more complex and therapy-oriented gene circuits. A comprehensive list of ON-OFF switches, categorized into transcriptional, post-transcriptional, translational and post-translational, is presented in the first sections. Subsequently, Boolean logic gates, synthetic mammalian oscillators and toggle switches will be described. Several synthetic gene networks are further reviewed in the medical applications section, including cancer therapy gene circuits, immuno-regulatory networks, among others. The final sections focus on the applicability of synthetic gene networks to drug discovery, drug delivery, receptor-activating gene circuits and mammalian biomanufacturing processes.

Abstract: Cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, or migration depend on precise spatiotemporal coordination of protein activities. Correspondingly, reaching a quantitative understanding of cellular behavior requires experimental approaches that enable spatial and temporal modulation of protein activity. Recently, a variety of light-sensitive protein domains have been engineered as optogenetic actuators to spatiotemporally control protein activity. In the present review, we discuss the principle of these optical control methods and examples of their applications in modulating signaling pathways. By controlling protein activity with spatiotemporal specificity, tunable dynamics, and quantitative control, light-controllable proteins promise to accelerate our understanding of cellular and organismal biology.

Abstract: The authors discovered some errors regarding reference group labels in Table 2. The corrected table is attached. The authors regret these errors.

Abstract: Genetically encoded optical tools have revolutionized modern biology by allowing detection and control of biological processes with exceptional spatiotemporal precision and sensitivity. Natural photoreceptors provide researchers with a vast source of molecular templates for engineering of fluorescent proteins, biosensors, and optogenetic tools. Here, we give a brief overview of natural photoreceptors and their mechanisms of action. We then discuss fluorescent proteins and biosensors developed from light-oxygen-voltage-sensing (LOV) domains and phytochromes, as well as their properties and applications. These fluorescent tools possess unique characteristics not achievable with green fluorescent protein-like probes, including near-infrared fluorescence, independence of oxygen, small size, and photosensitizer activity. We next provide an overview of available optogenetic tools of various origins, such as LOV and BLUF (blue-light-utilizing flavin adenine dinucleotide) domains, cryptochromes, and phytochromes, enabling control of versatile cellular processes. We analyze the principles of their function and practical requirements for use. We focus mainly on optical tools with demonstrated use beyond bacteria, with a specific emphasis on their applications in mammalian cells.

Abstract: Molecular switches that are controlled by chemicals have evolved as central research instruments in mammalian cell biology. However, these tools are limited in terms of their spatiotemporal resolution due to freely diffusing inducers. These limitations have recently been addressed by the development of optogenetic, genetically encoded, and light-responsive tools that can be controlled with the unprecedented spatiotemporal precision of light. In this article, we first provide a brief overview of currently available optogenetic tools that have been designed to control diverse cellular processes. Then, we focus on recent developments in light-controlled gene expression technologies and provide the reader with a guideline for choosing the most suitable gene expression system.

Abstract: Protein switches are ubiquitous in biological signal transduction systems, enabling cells to sense and respond to a variety of molecular queues in a rapid, specific, and integrated fashion. Analogously, tailor-engineered protein switches with custom input and output functions have become invaluable research tools for reporting on distinct physiological states and actuating molecular functions in real time and in situ. Here, we analyze recent progress in constructing protein-based switches while assessing their potential in the assembly of defined signaling motifs. We anticipate such systems will ultimately pave the way towards a new generation of molecular diagnostics and facilitate the construction of artificial signaling systems that operate in parallel to the signaling machinery of a host cell for applications in synthetic biology.

Abstract: Cells employ a plethora of signaling pathways to make their life-and-death decisions. Extensive genetic, biochemical, and physiological studies have led to the accumulation of knowledge about signaling components and their interactions within signaling networks. These conventional approaches, although useful, lack the ability to control the spatial and temporal aspects of signaling processes. The recently emerged optogenetic tools open exciting opportunities by enabling signaling regulation with superior temporal and spatial resolution, easy delivery, rapid reversibility, fewer off-target side effects, and the ability to dissect complex signaling networks. Here we review recent achievements in using light to control intracellular signaling pathways and discuss future prospects for the field, including integration of new genetic approaches into optogenetics.

Abstract: Plants depend on the surrounding light environment to direct their growth. Blue light (300-500 nm) in particular acts to promote a wide variety of photomorphogenic responses including seedling establishment, phototropism and circadian clock regulation. Several different classes of flavin-based photoreceptors have been identified that mediate the effects of blue light in the dicotyledonous genetic model Arabidopsis thaliana. These include the cryptochromes, the phototropins and members of the Zeitlupe family. In this review, we discuss recent advances, which contribute to our understanding of how these photosensory systems are activated by blue light and how they initiate signaling to regulate diverse aspects of plant development.

Abstract: The superfamily of phytochrome (Phy) photoreceptors regulates a wide array of light responses in plants and microorganisms through their unique ability to reversibly switch between stable dark-adapted and photoactivated end states. Whereas the downstream signaling cascades and biological consequences have been described, the initial events that underpin photochemistry of the coupled bilin chromophore and the ensuing conformational changes needed to propagate the light signal are only now being understood. Especially informative has been the rapidly expanding collection of 3D models developed by x-ray crystallographic, NMR, and single-particle electron microscopic methods from a remarkably diverse array of bacterial Phys. These structures have revealed how the modular architecture of these dimeric photoreceptors engages the buried chromophore through distinctive knot, hairpin, and helical spine features. When collectively viewed, these 3D structures reveal complex structural alterations whereby photoisomerization of the bilin drives nanometer-scale movements within the Phy dimer through bilin sliding, hairpin reconfiguration, and spine deformation that ultimately impinge upon the paired signal output domains. When integrated with the recently described structure of the photosensory module from Arabidopsis thaliana PhyB, new opportunities emerge for the rational redesign of plant Phys with novel photochemistries and signaling properties potentially beneficial to agriculture and their exploitation as optogenetic reagents.

Abstract: Variation in signaling activity across a cell plays a crucial role in processes such as cell migration. Signaling activity specific to organelles within a cell also likely plays a key role in regulating cellular functions. To understand how such spatially confined signaling within a cell regulates cell behavior, tools that exert experimental control over subcellular signaling activity are required. Here, we discuss the advantages of using optogenetic approaches to achieve this control. We focus on a set of optical triggers that allow subcellular control over signaling through the activation of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), receptor tyrosine kinases and downstream signaling proteins, as well as those that inhibit endogenous signaling proteins. We also discuss the specific insights with regard to signaling and cell behavior that these subcellular optogenetic approaches can provide.

Abstract: The ability to perturb living systems is essential to understand how cells sense, integrate, and exchange information, to comprehend how pathologic changes in these processes relate to disease, and to provide insights into therapeutic points of intervention. Several molecular technologies based on natural photoreceptor systems have been pioneered that allow distinct cellular signaling pathways to be modulated with light in a temporally and spatially precise manner. In this review, we describe and discuss the underlying design principles of natural photoreceptors that have emerged as fundamental for the rational design and implementation of synthetic light-controlled signaling systems. Furthermore, we examine the unique challenges that synthetic protein technologies face when applied to the study of neural dynamics at the cellular and network level.

Abstract: As light-based control of fundamental signaling pathways is becoming a reality, the field of optogenetics is rapidly moving beyond neuroscience. We have recently developed receptor tyrosine kinases that are activated by light and control cell proliferation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and angiogenic sprouting-cell behaviors central to cancer progression.

Abstract: Biological clocks play key roles in organismal development, homeostasis and function. In recent years, much work has focused on circadian clocks, but emerging studies have highlighted the existence of ultradian oscillators - those with a much shorter periodicity than 24 h. Accumulating evidence, together with recently developed optogenetic approaches, suggests that such ultradian oscillators play important roles during cell fate decisions, and analyzing the functional links between ultradian oscillation and cell fate determination will contribute to a deeper understanding of the design principle of developing embryos. In this Review, we discuss the mechanisms of ultradian oscillatory dynamics and introduce examples of ultradian oscillators in various biological contexts. We also discuss how optogenetic technology has been used to elucidate the biological significance of ultradian oscillations.

Abstract: Three major classes of flavin photosensors, light oxygen voltage (LOV) domains, blue light sensor using FAD (BLUF) proteins and cryptochromes (CRYs), regulate diverse biological activities in response to blue light. Recent studies of structure, spectroscopy and chemical mechanism have provided unprecedented insight into how each family operates at the molecular level. In general, the photoexcitation of the flavin cofactor leads to changes in redox and protonation states that ultimately remodel protein conformation and molecular interactions. For LOV domains, issues remain regarding early photochemical events, but common themes in conformational propagation have emerged across a diverse family of proteins. For BLUF proteins, photoinduced electron transfer reactions critical to light conversion are defined, but the subsequent rearrangement of hydrogen bonding networks key for signaling remains highly controversial. For CRYs, the relevant photocycles are actively debated, but mechanistic and functional studies are converging. Despite these challenges, our current understanding has enabled the engineering of flavoprotein photosensors for control of signaling processes within cells.

Abstract: Optogenetics, the use of genetically encoded tools to control protein function with light, can generate localized changes in signaling within living cells and animals. For years it has been focused on channel proteins for neurobiology, but has recently expanded to cover many different types of proteins, using a broad array of different protein engineering approaches. These methods have largely been directed at proteins involved in motility, cytoskeletal regulation and gene expression. This review provides a survey of non-channel proteins that have been engineered for optogenetics. Existing molecules are used to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of the many imaginative new approaches that the reader can use to create light-controlled proteins.

Abstract: Molecular signals are sensed by their respective receptors and information is transmitted and processed by a sophisticated intracellular network controlling various biological functions. Optogenetic tools allow the targeting of specific signaling nodes for a precise spatiotemporal control of downstream effects. These tools are based on photoreceptors such as phytochrome B (PhyB), cryptochrome 2, or light-oxygen-voltage-sensing domains that reversibly bind to specific interaction partners in a light-dependent manner. Fusions of a protein of interest to the photoreceptor or their interaction partners may enable the control of the protein function by light-mediated dimerization, a change of subcellular localization, or due to photocaging/-uncaging of effectors. In this review, we summarize the photoreceptors and the light-based mechanisms utilized for the modulation of signaling events in mammalian cells focusing on non-neuronal applications. We discuss in detail optogenetic tools and approaches applied to control signaling events mediated by second messengers, Rho GTPases and growth factor-triggered signaling cascades namely the RAS/RAF and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase pathways. Applying the latest generation of optogenetic tools allows to control cell fate decisions such as proliferation and differentiation or to deliver therapeutic substances in a spatiotemporally controlled manner.

Abstract: The ZTL/FKF1/LKP2 group proteins are LOV-domain-based blue-light photoreceptors that control protein degradation by ubiquitination. These proteins were identified relatively recently and are known to be involved in the regulation of the circadian clock and photoperiodic flowering in Arabidopsis. In this review, we focus on two topics. First, we summarize the molecular mechanisms by which ZTL and FKF1 regulate these biological phenomena based on genetic and biochemical analyses. Next, we discuss the chemical properties of the ZTL family LOV domains obtained from structural, biophysical, and photochemical characterizations of the LOV domains. These two different levels of approach unveiled the molecular mechanisms by which plants utilize ZTL and FKF1 proteins to monitor light for daily and seasonal adaptation.

Abstract: Genetically encoded actuators that allow control of protein-protein interactions using light, termed 'optical dimerizers', are emerging as new tools for experimental biology. In recent years, numerous new and versatile dimerizer systems have been developed. Here we discuss the design of optical dimerizer experiments, including choice of a dimerizer system, photoexcitation sources, and the coordinate use of imaging reporters. We provide detailed protocols for experiments using two dimerization systems we previously developed, CRY2/CIB and UVR8/UVR8, for use in controlling transcription, protein localization, and protein secretion using light. Additionally, we provide instructions and software for constructing a pulse-controlled LED device for use in experiments requiring extended light treatments.

Abstract: Time-resolved X-ray crystallography and solution scattering have been successfully conducted on proteins on time-scales down to around 100 ps, set by the duration of the hard X-ray pulses emitted by synchrotron sources. The advent of hard X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs), which emit extremely intense, very brief, coherent X-ray pulses, opens the exciting possibility of time-resolved experiments with femtosecond time resolution on macromolecular structure, in both single crystals and solution. The X-ray pulses emitted by an FEL differ greatly in many properties from those emitted by a synchrotron, in ways that at first glance make time-resolved measurements of X-ray scattering with the required accuracy extremely challenging. This opens up several questions which I consider in this brief overview. Are there likely to be chemically and biologically interesting structural changes to be revealed on the femtosecond time-scale? How shall time-resolved experiments best be designed and conducted to exploit the properties of FELs and overcome challenges that they pose? To date, fast time-resolved reactions have been initiated by a brief laser pulse, which obviously requires that the system under study be light-sensitive. Although this is true for proteins of the visual system and for signalling photoreceptors, it is not naturally the case for most interesting biological systems. To generate more biological targets for time-resolved study, can this limitation be overcome by optogenetic, chemical or other means?

Abstract: The light-based control of ion channels has been transformative for the neurosciences, but the optogenetic toolkit does not stop there. An expanding number of proteins and cellular functions have been shown to be controlled by light, and the practical considerations in deciding between reversible optogenetic systems (such as systems that use light-oxygen-voltage domains, phytochrome proteins, cryptochrome proteins and the fluorescent protein Dronpa) are well defined. The field is moving beyond proof of concept to answering real biological questions, such as how cell signalling is regulated in space and time, that were difficult or impossible to address with previous tools.

Abstract: The possibility offered by photocontrolling the activity of biomolecules in vivo while recording physiological parameters is opening up new opportunities for the study of physiological processes at the single-cell level in a living organism. For the last decade, such tools have been mainly used in neuroscience, and their application in freely moving animals has revolutionized this field. New photochemical approaches enable the control of various cellular processes by manipulating a wide range of protein functions in a noninvasive way and with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. We are at a pivotal moment where biologists can adapt these cutting-edge technologies to their system of study. This user-oriented review presents the state of the art and highlights technical issues to be resolved in the near future for wide and easy use of these powerful approaches.

Abstract: Systems biologists aim to understand how organism-level processes, such as differentiation and multicellular development, are encoded in DNA. Conversely, synthetic biologists aim to program systems-level biological processes, such as engineered tissue growth, by writing artificial DNA sequences. To achieve their goals, these groups have adapted a hierarchical electrical engineering framework that can be applied in the forward direction to design complex biological systems or in the reverse direction to analyze evolved networks. Despite much progress, this framework has been limited by an inability to directly and dynamically characterize biological components in the varied contexts of living cells. Recently, two optogenetic methods for programming custom gene expression and protein localization signals have been developed and used to reveal fundamentally new information about biological components that respond to those signals. This basic dynamic characterization approach will be a major enabling technology in synthetic and systems biology.

Abstract: Biological processes are naturally regulated with high spatial and temporal resolution at the molecular, cellular, and systems level. To control and study processes with the same resolution, light-sensitive groups and domains have been employed to optically activate and deactivate protein function. Optical control is a noninvasive technique in which the amplitude, wavelength, spatial location, and timing of the light illumination can be easily controlled. This review focuses on applications of genetically encoded unnatural amino acids containing light-removable protecting groups to optically trigger protein function, while also discussing select optogenetic approaches using natural light-sensitive domains to engineer optical control of biological processes.