A Fluorometric Activity Assay for Light-Regulated Cyclic-Nucleotide-Monophosphate Actuators.

As a transformative approach in neuroscience and cell biology, optogenetics grants control over manifold cellular events with unprecedented spatiotemporal definition, reversibility, and noninvasiveness. Sensory photoreceptors serve as genetically encoded, light-regulated actuators and hence embody the cornerstone of optogenetics. To expand the scope of optogenetics, ever more naturally occurring photoreceptors are being characterized, and synthetic photoreceptors with customized, light-regulated function are being engineered.

Engineering of a red-light-activated human cAMP/cGMP-specific phosphodiesterase.

Sensory photoreceptors elicit vital physiological adaptations in response to incident light. As light-regulated actuators, photoreceptors underpin optogenetics, which denotes the noninvasive, reversible, and spatiotemporally precise perturbation by light of living cells and organisms. Of particular versatility, naturally occurring photoactivated adenylate cyclases promote the synthesis of the second messenger cAMP under blue light.