Optogenetic Control of Endoplasmic Reticulum-Mitochondria Tethering.
                            
                                blue
                            
                                near-infrared
                            
                            
                                BphP1/Q-PAS1
                            
                                FKF1/GI
                            
                                iLID
                            
                                Magnets
                            
                            
                                
                                    HEK293T
                                
                            
                                
                                    NIH/3T3
                                
                            
                                
                                    primary mouse cortical neurons
                                
                            
                            
                                Organelle manipulation
                            
                            
                            
                            
                            
                        
                        
                        
                        
                            Abstract:
                            The organelle interface emerges as a dynamic platform for a variety of biological responses. However, their study has been limited by the lack of tools to manipulate their occurrence in live cells spatiotemporally. Here, we report the development of a genetically encoded light-inducible tethering (LIT) system allowing the induction of contacts between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria, taking advantage of a pair of light-dependent heterodimerization called an iLID system. We demonstrate that the iLID-based LIT approach enables control of ER-mitochondria tethering with high spatiotemporal precision in various cell types including primary neurons, which will facilitate the functional study of ER-mitochondrial contacts.