Optogenetics tools, such as fusions of light-absorbing domains with protein 'effector' domains, should in principle allow light to be used to control protein expression in bacteria and archaea. Is this practical and useful compared to other methods with current technologies?
Optogenetics actually has a totally different definition but in case of light controlled gene expression in bacteria you might want to have a look at these publications:
http://pdfs.taborlab.rice.edu/levskaya_nature_2005.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21035461
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775486/
Thanks for these publications. I do not like the narrow definition of optogenetics to apply only to neuroscience. To me tools would still be described as optogenetics that have been made based on light dimerization properties of LOV domains, phytochrome, cryptochrome and UVR8. Do others mostly prefer the narrow definition?
You are truly welcome, In reviewal articles optogenetics is usually defined as the introduction of opsins into mammalian cells to control their function and behavior using light, but i see no reason why not to call other light induced gene expression systems as optogenetics. either.
From my point of view, "opto-" techniques are useful when studying processes that are fast, dynamic and/or very localized. This kind of studies would benefit from the enormous spatial and temporal resolution of manipulation by light. Among them, I underline cell motility, protein complex dynamics, cytoskeleton dynamics, intracellular traffic, studies on organelles and of course neurotransmission, for which optical tools can be less invasive than the rest of the available techniques.
Studies on processes with time frames of hours to days are also possible, but won't benefit so much from the properties of optical control, since they can be addressed with simpler methods. In this case, the cost of optical techniques (both in equipment and technical complexity) can outweigh their benefits.
When it comes to protein expression, I think that applying optical control would make sense if one is trying to dissect expression in different parts of a single cell or if the control is applied at the level of translation which, with proteolysis and sequestration, would be the mechanism for fast changes in protein concentration.
Note that I speak of optical tools in general rather than optogenetics alone. I myself work on the approach of optopharmacology, that is, the development of optically active molecules able to produce the control effects of optogenetic tools without the need for heterologous overexpression in order to address key questions in "native" systems.
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