Browse the toolkit beneath workflows. The mechanism branch runs mechanism -> architecture -> component, while the technique branch runs from high-level approaches down to concrete methods.
11 items matching 1 filter
Mechanism Branch
Layer 1
Mechanisms
Top-level concepts: biophysical action modes such as heterodimerization, photocleavage, or RNA binding.
Layer 2
Architectures
Arrangements that realize or deploy mechanisms, including switches, construct patterns, and delivery strategies.
Layer 3
Components
Low-level parts and sequence-defined elements used inside architectures, including protein domains and RNA elements.
Technique Branch
Layer 1
Approaches
High-level engineering practices such as computational design, directed evolution, sequence verification, and functional assay.
Layer 2
Methods
Concrete methods used to design, build, verify, or characterize engineered systems.
Showing 1-11 of 11
Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) is a light-activated ion channel used as an optogenetic switch to depolarize membranes and activate electrically excitable cells. The supplied evidence also indicates that light-activated ChR2 can modulate CaV1.3 calcium channel activity.
Channelrhodopsins are light-activated ion channels from algae used as optogenetic tools to control membrane potential. Reported channelrhodopsin variants conduct either cations or anions, enabling light-driven depolarization or hyperpolarization.
In this study, we developed a highly sensitive moderately K+-selective channelrhodopsin (HcKCR1-hs) by molecular engineering of the recently discovered Hyphochytrium catenoides kalium (potassium) channelrhodopsin 1.
Among tested variants, the KCR1-C29D mutant shows a relatively high and the most stable K+ to Na+ permeability ratio during illumination. While other KCR variants often evoke excitatory responses, KCR1-C29D consistently provides robust in vivo inhibition across cell types, illumination conditions, and species.
The demand for more application-specific Channelrhodopsin variants started a race between protein engineers to design improved variants. Here, we review new variants whose efficacy has already been proven in neurophysiological experiments, or variants which are likely to extend the optogenetic toolbox.
This review summarizes the latest progress in engineering genetically encoded light-sensitive ion channel actuators and modulators (GELICAMs) with diverse ion selectivity and spectral sensitivity.
Light-activated ion channels are optogenetic protein tools used in neuroscience to control action potential generation with light. The supplied evidence places them within a broader class of optogenetic actuators but does not specify a particular channel family or construct.
The review further discusses the molecular structure of these channels, recent advances in their development, and potential applications, including a proposed drug delivery system using NaChR-expressing red blood cells that could be triggered to release therapeutic agents upon light activation.
Here we report ChReef, an improved variant of the channelrhodopsin ChRmine.
Optogenetics provides a tool for controlling the electrical activity of excitable cells by means of the interaction of light with light-gated ion channels.
This review highlights the natural occurrence and engineered variants of sodium-selective channelrhodopsins (NaChRs), emphasizing their importance in optogenetic applications. These tools offer enhanced specificity in Na+ ion conduction, reducing unwanted effects from other ions, and generating strong depolarizing currents. Some of the NaChRs showed nearly no desensitization upon light illumination.