AI Article Synopsis
- Biomolecular condensates play crucial roles in cell functions and diseases, but understanding their dynamics can be challenging.
- Optogenetics provides a way to precisely control the condensation of proteins, allowing researchers to manipulate when and how these condensates form and dissolve.
- The review covers the current methods of optogenetically controlling condensation, examines the proteins involved, and highlights both current applications and future possibilities in this field.
Article Abstract
Biomolecular condensates appear throughout cell physiology and pathology, but the specific role of condensation or its dynamics is often difficult to determine. Optogenetics offers an expanding toolset to address these challenges, providing tools to directly control condensation of arbitrary proteins with precision over their formation, dissolution, and patterning in space and time. In this review, we describe the current state of the field for optogenetic control of condensation. We survey the proteins and their derivatives that form the foundation of this toolset, and we discuss the factors that distinguish them to enable appropriate selection for a given application. We also describe recent examples of the ways in which optogenetic condensation has been used in both basic and applied studies. Finally, we discuss important design considerations when engineering new proteins for optogenetic condensation, and we preview future innovations that will further empower this toolset in the coming years.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168835 | DOI Listing |
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