title: From dusk till dawn: one-plasmid systems for light-regulated gene expression.
abstract: Signaling photoreceptors mediate diverse organismal adaptations in response to light. As light-gated protein switches, signaling photoreceptors provide the basis for optogenetics, a term that refers to the control of organismal physiology and behavior by light. We establish as novel optogenetic tools the plasmids pDusk and pDawn, which employ blue-light photoreceptors to confer light-repressed or light-induced gene expression in Escherichia coli with up to 460-fold induction upon illumination. Key features of these systems are low background activity, high dynamic range, spatial control on the 20-μm scale, independence from exogenous factors, and ease of use. In optogenetic experiments, pDusk and pDawn can be used to specifically perturb individual nodes of signaling networks and interrogate their role. On the preparative scale, pDawn can induce by light the production of recombinant proteins and thus represents a cost-effective and readily automated alternative to conventional induction systems.
authors.affiliation: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Biologie, Biophysikalische Chemie, Invalidenstraße 42, 10115 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ohlendorf
authors.forename: Roee R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Vidavski
authors.forename: Avigdor
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eldar
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moffat
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Möglich
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000528:radiation effects*; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000528:radiation effects*; D008027:Light; D020283:Photoreceptors, Microbial / Q000235:genetics*; D010957:Plasmids; D015202:Protein Engineering; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D020283:Photoreceptors, Microbial; C069289:FixJ protein, Bacteria