Natural photoreceptors and their application to synthetic biology.

Daniel Schmidt, Yong Ku Cho

Journal: Trends in biotechnology 2015;33(2):80-91

PMID: 25466878

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

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.

Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Address: MIT Media Lab and McGovern Institute, Departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biological Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut-Storrs, Storrs, CT, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2014.10.007

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MeSH Terms: Arabidopsis Proteins, Bacteria, Bacteriorhodopsins, Fungal Proteins, Gene Expression, Humans, Ion Transport, Light, Light Signal Transduction, Optogenetics, Phototropins, Phytochrome, Plants, Synthetic Biology, Thermodynamics