Shrimp Rhodopsins as new far-red absorbing optogenetic tools

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Red light is most attractive for stimulation of optogenetic actuators and reporter systems, since it is less harmful than short-wavelength light, penetrates well through tissue and does spectrally not interfere with most other available optical tools. Among the animal rhodopsins with the highest sensitivity to red light in nature are the mantis shrimp’s red sensitive rhodopsins that can be activated with near-infrared light beyond 700 nm. We will characterize the 9 already sequenced rhodopsins of the Shrimp Neogonodactylus oerstedii and variants of related species. We will overcome the poor expression of invertebrate rhodopsin by codon optimization and tailoring of the C- and N-termini and characterize the biophysical properties of the recombinant proteins. We will determine and modulate the G-protein coupling and use these rhodopsins for the modification of signaling cascades in neurons for non-invasive deep tissue activation.