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An ‘on’ switch for proteins

Current methods for producing proteins that can be activated by light require knowledge of the protein’s active site, or can reduce the protein’s functionality. A technique that overcomes these issues has been devised.
  1. Klaus Michael Hahn

    1. Klaus Michael Hahn is in the Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.

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Cells can activate the same proteins at different times or places to generate diverse effects — for example, the same enzymes can be involved in both cell growth and programmed cell death. Many cellular processes that depend on the timing and site of protein activity can be studied in living cells, by triggering localized protein activity and examining the effects. In the past few years, scientists have developed ‘photoactivation’ methods that allow protein functions to be switched on by light1,2. Writing in Nature, Wang et al.3 now describe a photoactivation strategy that is both broadly applicable and minimally perturbs normal protein functions.

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Nature 569, 490-491 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01394-1

References

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  3. Wang, J. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1188-1 (2019).

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