Shrimp Rhodopsins as new far-red absorbing optogenetic tools

红光对于光遗传致动器和报告系统的刺激是最有吸引力的，因为它比短波长的光危害更小，可以很好地穿透组织，并且在光谱上不会干扰大多数其他可用的光学工具。在自然界中对红光敏感度最高的动物视紫红质中，螳螂虾的红敏感视紫红质可以被700 nm以上的近红外光激活。我们将对已测序的9个视紫红质及其相关物种的变异进行表征。我们将通过对C端和n端进行密码子优化和剪裁来克服无脊椎动物视紫红质的低表达，并表征重组蛋白的生物物理特性。我们将确定和调节g蛋白偶联，并使用这些视紫红质来修饰神经元中的信号级联，以实现非侵入性深部组织激活。

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.