title: Infrared laser-induced gene expression in targeted single cells of Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: Since the dawn of transgenic technology some 40 years ago, biologists have sought ways to manipulate, at their discretion, the expression of particular genes of interest in living organisms. The infrared laser-evoked gene operator (IR-LEGO) is a recently developed system for inducing gene expression in living organisms in a targeted fashion. It exploits the highly efficient capacity of an infrared laser for heating cells, to provide a high level of gene expression driven by heat-inducible promoters. By irradiating living specimens with a laser under a microscope, heat shock responses can be induced in individual cells, thereby inducing a particular gene, under the control of a heat shock promoter, in specifically targeted cells. In this review we first summarize previous attempts to drive transgene expression in organisms by using heat shock promoters, and then introduce the basic principle of the IR-LEGO system, and its applications.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8602, Japan.
authors.forename: Motoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Naoya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Toyoda
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shimojou
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takagi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans; D004330:Drosophila; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D018869:Heat-Shock Response / Q000235:genetics; D007259:Infrared Rays; D007834:Lasers; D008027:Light; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D019076:Transgenes; D015027:Zebrafish
chemical_list: D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins