Journal
NATURE REVIEWS METHODS PRIMERS
Volume 2, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
SPRINGERNATURE
DOI: 10.1038/s43586-022-00136-4
Keywords
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Categories
Funding
- Axa Research Fund [IHU FOReSIGHT, P-ALLOP3-IHU-000]
- European Research Council (ERC) [885090]
- Agence National pour la Recherche
- National Inst itutes of Health (NIH) [ANR-17-CE160021]
- NIH [R01 HL144157]
- National Science Foundation (NSF) [R21EB026152]
- NSF [1705645]
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy [1830941]
- German Research Foundation (DFG) [EXC-2049 -390688087]
- DFG [HE1640/42-1]
- (Neurocure) [SFB1078, SPP1926]
- ERC [819496]
- Hertie Foundation
- Swiss National Science Foundations
- European Union [310030_189188, CRSII5_186266]
- Ligon Research Center of Vision at Kresge Eye Institute, Dryer Foundation [844492]
- Herrick Foundation
- Research to Prevent Blindness
- Anatomical Sciences at Wayne State University School of Medicine
- Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Charitable Foundation Chair for Research in Neuroscience
- EU
- Israel Science Foundation [H2020-ICT-2018-20 DEEPER 101016787]
- [3131/20]
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) [CRSII5_186266, 310030_189188] Funding Source: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
- Div Of Chem, Bioeng, Env, & Transp Sys
- Directorate For Engineering [1705645] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- European Research Council (ERC) [819496, 885090] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Optogenetics is a powerful technique that allows control and manipulation of specific cells using genetic engineering and light. It has revolutionized neuroscience and has the potential to impact other fields as well.
Optogenetic techniques have been developed to allow control over the activity of selected cells within a highly heterogeneous tissue, using a combination of genetic engineering and light. Optogenetics employs natural and engineered photoreceptors, mostly of microbial origin, to be genetically introduced into the cells of interest. As a result, cells that are naturally light-insensitive can be made photosensitive and addressable by illumination and precisely controllable in time and space. The selectivity of expression and subcellular targeting in the host is enabled by applying control elements such as promoters, enhancers and specific targeting sequences to the employed photoreceptor-encoding DNA. This powerful approach allows precise characterization and manipulation of cellular functions and has motivated the development of advanced optical methods for patterned photostimulation. Optogenetics has revolutionized neuroscience during the past 15 years and is primed to have a similar impact in other fields, including cardiology, cell biology and plant sciences. In this Primer, we describe the principles of optogenetics, review the most commonly used optogenetic tools, illumination approaches and scientific applications and discuss the possibilities and limitations associated with optogenetic manipulations across a wide variety of optical techniques, cells, circuits and organisms.
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