@article {27311,
	title = {Light-Oxygen-Voltage (LOV)-sensing Domains: Activation Mechanism and Optogenetic Stimulation},
	journal = {Photosensory Receptors-Mechanisms and Effects},
	volume = {436},
	number = {5},
	year = {2024},
	month = {2024},
	pages = {168356},
	abstract = {The light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) domains of phototropins emerged as essential constituents of light-sensitive proteins, helping initiate blue light-triggered responses. Moreover, these domains have been identified across all kingdoms of life. LOV domains utilize flavin nucleotides as co-factors and undergo structural rearrangements upon exposure to blue light, which activates an effector domain that executes the final output of the photoreaction. LOV domains are versatile photoreceptors that play critical roles in cellular signaling and environmental adaptation; additionally, they can noninvasively sense and control intracellular processes with high spatiotemporal precision, making them ideal candidates for use in optogenetics, where a light signal is linked to a cellular process through a photoreceptor. The ongoing development of LOV-based optogenetic tools, driven by advances in structural biology, spectroscopy, computational methods, and synthetic biology, has the potential to revolutionize the study of biological systems and enable the development of novel therapeutic strategies.},
	keywords = {LOV, molecular mechanism, Optogenetics, photoreceptor, Signal Transduction},
	isbn = {0022-2836},
	url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283623004679},
	author = {Flores-Ibarra, Andrea and Maia, Raiza N.A. and Olasz, Bence and Church, Jonathan R. and Gotthard, Guillaume and Schapiro, Igor and Heberle, Joachim and Nogly, Przemyslaw}
}
@article {27310,
	title = {Merocyanines form bacteriorhodopsins with strongly bathochromic absorption maxima},
	volume = {23},
	number = {1},
	year = {2024},
	month = {2024},
	pages = {31 - 53},
	abstract = {There is a need to shift the absorbance of biomolecules to the optical transparency window of tissue for applications in optogenetics and photo-pharmacology. There are a few strategies to achieve the so-called red shift of the absorption maxima. Herein, a series of 11 merocyanine dyes were synthesized and employed as chromophores in place of retinal in bacteriorhodopsin (bR) to achieve a bathochromic shift of the absorption maxima relative to bR{\textquoteright}s \({\lambda }_{\mathrm{max}}^{a}\) of 568\&nbsp;nm. Assembly with the apoprotein bacterioopsin (bO) led to stable, covalently bound chromoproteins with strongly bathochromic absorbance bands, except for three compounds. Maximal red shifts were observed for molecules 9, 2, and 8 in bR where the \({\lambda }_{\mathrm{max}}^{a}\)\&nbsp;was 766, 755, and 736\&nbsp;nm, respectively. While these three merocyanines have different end groups, they share a similar structural feature, namely, a methyl group which is located at the retinal equivalent position 13 of the polyene chain. The absorption and fluorescence data are also presented for the retinal derivatives in their aldehyde, Schiff base (SB), and protonated SB (PSB) forms in solution. According to their hemicyanine character, the PSBs and their analogue bRs exhibited fluorescence quantum yields (Φf) several orders of magnitude greater than native bR (Φf 0.02 to 0.18 versus 1.5 {\texttimes} 10{\textendash}5 in bR) while also exhibiting much smaller Stokes shifts than bR (400 to 1000\&nbsp;cm-1 versus 4030\&nbsp;cm-1 in bR). The experimental results are complemented by quantum chemical calculations where excellent agreement between the experimental \({\lambda }_{\mathrm{max}}^{a}\)and the calculated \({\lambda }_{\mathrm{max}}^{a}\) was achieved with the second-order algebraic-diagrammatic construction [ADC(2)] method. In addition, quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations were employed to shed light on the origin of the bathochromic shift of merocyanine 2 in bR compared with native bR.},
	isbn = {1474-9092},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-023-00496-0},
	author = {Mackintosh, Megan J. and Hoischen, Dorothee and Martin, Hans-Dieter and Schapiro, Igor and Wolfgang G{\"a}rtner}
}
