Journal
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2022.931237
Keywords
nuclear localization signal; nuclear transport; importins; neurons; optogenetic tools; near-infrared
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Funding
- US National Institutes of Health [GM122567, EY030705]
- Academy of Finland [322226]
- Doctoral Programme in Biomedicine of the University of Helsinki
- Orion Research Foundation
- Academy of Finland (AKA) [322226, 322226] Funding Source: Academy of Finland (AKA)
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Researchers developed a non-opsin optogenetic tool for light-controlled nuclear export of a protein in neurons. They found that commonly used nuclear localization signals (NLSs) are suboptimal in neurons and identified uncommon NLSs that mediate fast nuclear import. By adjusting the NLSs, they optimized the tool for lower background and higher contrast in neurons.
Nuclear transport in neurons differs from that in non-neuronal cells. Here we developed a non-opsin optogenetic tool (OT) for the nuclear export of a protein of interest induced by near-infrared (NIR) light. In darkness, nuclear import reverses the OT action. We used this tool for comparative analysis of nuclear transport dynamics mediated by nuclear localization signals (NLSs) with different importin specificities. We found that widely used KPNA2-binding NLSs, such as Myc and SV40, are suboptimal in neurons. We identified uncommon NLSs mediating fast nuclear import and demonstrated that the performance of the OT for nuclear export can be adjusted by varying NLSs. Using these NLSs, we optimized the NIR OT for light-controlled gene expression for lower background and higher contrast in neurons. The selected NLSs binding importins abundant in neurons could improve performance of genetically encoded tools in these cells, including OTs and gene-editing tools.
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