Engineering of a bona fide light-operated calcium channel

Lian He, Liuqing Wang, Hongxiang Zeng, Peng Tan, Guolin Ma, Sisi Zheng, Yaxin Li, Lin Sun, Fei Dou, Stefan Siwko, Yun Huang (), Youjun Wang () and Yubin Zhou ()
Additional contact information
Lian He: Texas A&M University
Liuqing Wang: College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University
Hongxiang Zeng: Texas A&M University
Peng Tan: Texas A&M University
Guolin Ma: Texas A&M University
Sisi Zheng: College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University
Yaxin Li: College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University
Lin Sun: College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University
Fei Dou: College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University
Stefan Siwko: Texas A&M University
Yun Huang: Texas A&M University
Youjun Wang: College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University
Yubin Zhou: Texas A&M University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The current optogenetic toolkit lacks a robust single-component Ca2+-selective ion channel tailored for remote control of Ca2+ signaling in mammals. Existing tools are either derived from engineered channelrhodopsin variants without strict Ca2+ selectivity or based on the stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) that might crosstalk with other targets. Here, we describe the design of a light-operated Ca2+ channel (designated LOCa) by inserting a plant-derived photosensory module into the intracellular loop of an engineered ORAI1 channel. LOCa displays biophysical features reminiscent of the ORAI1 channel, which enables precise optical control over Ca2+ signals and hallmark Ca2+-dependent physiological responses. Furthermore, we demonstrate the use of LOCa to modulate aberrant hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal, transcriptional programming, cell suicide, as well as neurodegeneration in a Drosophila model of amyloidosis.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20425-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-20425-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20425-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().