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Enhancing Channelrhodopsins: An Overview

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Optogenetics

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1408))

Abstract

After the discovery of Channelrhodopsin, a light-gated ion channel, only a few people saw the diverse range of applications for such a protein. Now, more than 10 years later Channelrhodopsins have become widely accepted as the ultimate tool to control the membrane potential of excitable cells via illumination. The demand for more application-specific Channelrhodopsin variants started a race between protein engineers to design improved variants. Even though many engineered variants have undisputable advantages compared to wild-type variants, many users are alienated by the tremendous amount of new variants and their perplexing names.

Here, we review new variants whose efficacy has already been proven in neurophysiological experiments, or variants which are likely to extend the optogenetic toolbox. Variants are described based on their mechanistic and operational properties in terms of expression, kinetics, ion selectivity, and wavelength responsivity.

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not

when there is nothing left to add,

but when there is nothing left to take.”

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Acknowledgments

We thank our colleagues for providing action spectra of selected ChRs: Franziska Schneider (C1V1, C1V1-E122T–E162T), Christiane Grimm (ReaChR), and Johannes Vierock (CsChrimson). We are also in debt to Mathias Mahn, Simon Wiegert, Yoav Printz, Kirstin Eisenhauer, and Tess Oram for proofreading the manuscript and fruitful discussion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Experimental Biophysics, Humboldt University Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 42, 10115, Berlin, Germany

    Jonas Wietek

  2. Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Herzel 234, 76100, Rehovot, Israel

    Matthias Prigge

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  1. Jonas Wietek
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  2. Matthias Prigge
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Correspondence to Matthias Prigge .

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  1. University of Bielefeld, Dept of Cellular & Dev Biology of Plants, Bielefeld, Germany

    Arash Kianianmomeni

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Wietek, J., Prigge, M. (2016). Enhancing Channelrhodopsins: An Overview. In: Kianianmomeni, A. (eds) Optogenetics. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1408. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3512-3_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3512-3_10

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-3510-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-3512-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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