Team:EPF-Lausanne

LovTAP dimer bound to DNA

Recent discoveries of photoreceptors in many organisms got us excited about the possibility of using light-responsive genetic tools in synthetic biology. Indeed, such tools could in principle induce phenotypic changes in a more localized, preciser and faster fashion than currently available chemical-based methods. As a proof-of-concept, the goal of our project therefore is to induce a change in gene expression, more specifically to directly turn a gene on or off, in a living organism, in response to a light stimulus.

For this purpose, we used a light-sensitive DNA binding protein "LOVTAP" (for Light, Oxygen, Voltage Tryptophan-Activated Protein) to convert a light input into a chosen output, here fluorescence generated by the RFP reporter gene.

We demonstrate that this light-induced gene switch tool works in vivo and thus demonstrate the feasibility of implementing such powerful technology in biological systems of interest.