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Biotechnology

Programming genomes with light

Nature volume 500, pages 406–408 (2013)Cite this article

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The combination of two techniques — optogenetics and genome editing using engineered nucleases — now provides a general means for the light-controlled regulation of any gene of interest. See Letter p.472

In this issue, Konermann et al.1 combine two sparkling biological technologies developed over the past decade. The first is optogenetics2, the process by which light-responsive proteins are engineered into target cells and used to regulate their activity. The second is the use of sequence-targeted DNA-cleaving enzymes to specifically alter the genome. By uniting these techniques, the authors present a versatile method for targeted control of gene transcription and genomic modifications.

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Figure 1: Modular control of genome function.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Andreas Möglich is in the Department of Biophysical Chemistry at the Institute of Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany.,

    Andreas Möglich

  2. Peter Hegemann is in the Department of Experimental Biophysics at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.,

    Peter Hegemann

Authors
  1. Andreas Möglich
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  2. Peter Hegemann
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Correspondence to Andreas Möglich or Peter Hegemann.

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Möglich, A., Hegemann, P. Programming genomes with light. Nature 500, 406–408 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/500406a

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