Institute of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry and Regensburg Center for Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany.
Biol Chem. 2022 Mar 31;403(5-6):573-613. doi: 10.1515/hsz-2021-0417. Print 2022 Apr 26.
Light is essential for various biochemical processes in all domains of life. In its presence certain proteins inside a cell are excited, which either stimulates or inhibits subsequent cellular processes. The artificial photocontrol of specifically proteins is of growing interest for the investigation of scientific questions on the organismal, cellular and molecular level as well as for the development of medicinal drugs or biocatalytic tools. For the targeted design of photocontrol in proteins, three major methods have been developed over the last decades, which employ either chemical engineering of small-molecule photosensitive effectors (photopharmacology), incorporation of photoactive non-canonical amino acids by genetic code expansion (photoxenoprotein engineering), or fusion with photoreactive biological modules (hybrid protein optogenetics). This review compares the different methods as well as their strategies and current applications for the light-regulation of proteins and provides background information useful for the implementation of each technique.
光是所有生命领域中各种生化过程的必要条件。在光的存在下，细胞内的某些蛋白质被激发，从而刺激或抑制随后的细胞过程。人工光控特定蛋白质对于研究生物体、细胞和分子水平上的科学问题，以及开发药物或生物催化工具，越来越受到关注。为了有针对性地设计蛋白质的光控，过去几十年已经开发出三种主要方法，它们分别采用小分子光敏效应物的化学工程（光药理学）、通过遗传密码扩展掺入光活性非规范氨基酸（光色蛋白工程）或与光反应性生物模块融合（杂交蛋白光遗传学）。本文综述了这些不同的方法及其策略，并介绍了当前用于蛋白质光调控的应用，为每种技术的实施提供了有用的背景信息。
