Aptamer‐Mediated Reversible Transactivation of Gene Expression by Light
Christian Renzl, Ankana Kakoti, Günter Mayer
Abstract
The investigation and manipulation of cellular processes with subcellular resolution requires non-invasive tools with spatiotemporal precision and reversibility. Building on the interaction of the photoreceptor PAL with an RNA aptamer, we describe a variation of the CRISPR/dCAS9 system for light-controlled activation of gene expression. This platform significantly reduces the coding space required for genetic manipulation and provides a strong on-switch with almost no residual activity in the dark. It adds to the current set of modular building blocks for synthetic biological circuit design and is broadly applicable.
Topics & Concepts
TransactivationAptamerGene expressionGeneExpression (computer science)Computational biologyChemistryMolecular biologyCell biologyBiologyComputer scienceGeneticsProgramming languageCRISPR and Genetic EngineeringPhotochromic and Fluorescence ChemistryPhotoreceptor and optogenetics research