Optogenetic and Chemical Induction Systems for Regulation of Transgene Expression in Plants: Use in Basic and Applied Research.

Continuous and ubiquitous expression of foreign genes sometimes results in harmful effects on the growth, development and metabolic activities of plants. Tissue-specific promoters help to overcome this disadvantage, but do not allow one to precisely control transgene expression over time. Thus, inducible transgene expression systems have obvious benefits. In plants, transcriptional regulation is usually driven by chemical agents under the control of chemically-inducible promoters. These systems are diverse, but usually contain two elements, the chimeric transcription factor and the reporter gene. The commonly used chemically-induced expression systems are tetracycline-, steroid-, insecticide-, copper-, and ethanol-regulated. Unlike chemical-inducible systems, optogenetic tools enable spatiotemporal, quantitative and reversible control over transgene expression with light, overcoming limitations of chemically-inducible systems. This review updates and summarizes optogenetic and chemical induction methods of transgene expression used in basic plant research and discusses their potential in field applications.

Detection of UVR8 Homodimers and Monomers by Immunoblotting Analysis in Tomato.

The UV RESISTANCE LOCUS 8 (UVR8) is a photoreceptor mediating photomorphogenic responses to UV-B. UVR8 exists as homodimer in plants and UV-B induces dissociation of dimeric UVR8 into monomers to initiate responses. The monomer/dimer status of UVR8 is reversible and a dynamic photo-equilibrium is established in plants according to the ambient light conditions. Here we describe a method to detect UVR8 homodimer and monomer by immunoblotting method from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants. The feature of this method is that protein samples are not boiled prior to loading on an SDS-PAGE gel, which allows the detection of UVR8 homodimer and monomers simultaneously with a single antibody.

A leap in quantum efficiency through light harvesting in photoreceptor UVR8.

Plants utilize a UV-B (280 to 315 nm) photoreceptor UVR8 (UV RESISTANCE LOCUS 8) to sense environmental UV levels and regulate gene expression to avoid harmful UV effects. Uniquely, UVR8 uses intrinsic tryptophan for UV-B perception with a homodimer structure containing 26 structural tryptophan residues. However, besides 8 tryptophans at the dimer interface to form two critical pyramid perception centers, the other 18 tryptophans' functional role is unknown. Here, using ultrafast fluorescence spectroscopy, computational methods and extensive mutations, we find that all 18 tryptophans form light-harvesting networks and funnel their excitation energy to the pyramid centers to enhance light-perception efficiency. We determine the timescales of all elementary tryptophan-to-tryptophan energy-transfer steps in picoseconds to nanoseconds, in excellent agreement with quantum computational calculations, and finally reveal a significant leap in light-perception quantum efficiency from 35% to 73%. This photoreceptor is the first system discovered so far, to be best of our knowledge, using natural amino-acid tryptophans to form networks for both light harvesting and light perception.

An Optogenetic Tool for Induced Protein Stabilization Based on the Phaeodactylum tricornutum Aureochrome 1a Light-Oxygen-Voltage Domain.

Control of cellular events by optogenetic tools is a powerful approach to manipulate cellular functions in a minimally invasive manner. A common problem posed by the application of optogenetic tools is to tune the activity range to be physiologically relevant. Here, we characterized a photoreceptor of the light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) domain family of Phaeodactylum tricornutum aureochrome 1a (AuLOV) as a tool for increasing protein stability under blue light conditions in budding yeast. Structural studies of AuLOVwt, the variants AuLOVM254, and AuLOVW349 revealed alternative dimer association modes for the dark state, which differ from previously reported AuLOV dark-state structures. Rational design of AuLOV-dimer interface mutations resulted in an optimized optogenetic tool that we fused to the photoactivatable adenylyl cyclase from Beggiatoa sp. This synergistic light-regulation approach using two photoreceptors resulted in an optimized, photoactivatable adenylyl cyclase with a cyclic adenosine monophosphate production activity that matches the physiological range of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Overall, we enlarged the optogenetic toolbox for yeast and demonstrated the importance of fine-tuning the optogenetic tool activity for successful application in cells.

Plant photoreceptors and their signaling components compete for COP1 binding via VP peptide motifs.

Plants sense different parts of the sun's light spectrum using distinct photoreceptors, which signal through the E3 ubiquitin ligase COP1. Here, we analyze why many COP1-interacting transcription factors and photoreceptors harbor sequence-divergent Val-Pro (VP) motifs that bind COP1 with different binding affinities. Crystal structures of the VP motifs of the UV-B photoreceptor UVR8 and the transcription factor HY5 in complex with COP1, quantitative binding assays, and reverse genetic experiments together suggest that UVR8 and HY5 compete for COP1. Photoactivation of UVR8 leads to high-affinity cooperative binding of its VP motif and its photosensing core to COP1, preventing COP1 binding to its substrate HY5. UVR8-VP motif chimeras suggest that UV-B signaling specificity resides in the UVR8 photoreceptor core. Different COP1-VP peptide motif complexes highlight sequence fingerprints required for COP1 targeting. The blue-light photoreceptors CRY1 and CRY2 also compete with transcription factors for COP1 binding using similar VP motifs. Thus, our work reveals that different photoreceptors and their signaling components compete for COP1 via a conserved mechanism to control different light signaling cascades.

Optical Control of Transcription: Genetically Encoded Photoswitchable Variants of T7 RNA Polymerase.

Light-sensing protein domains that link an exogenous light signal to the activity of an enzyme have attracted much attention for the engineering of new regulatory mechanisms into proteins and for studying the dynamic behavior of intracellular reactions and reaction cascades. Light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) photoreceptors are blue-light-sensing modules that have been intensely characterized for this purpose and linked to several proteins of interest. For the successful application of these tools, it is crucial to identify appropriate fusion strategies for combining sensor and enzyme domains that sustain activity and light-induced responsivity. Terminal fusion of LOV domains is the natural strategy; however, this is not transferrable to T7 RNA polymerase because both of its termini are involved in catalysis. It is shown herein that it is possible to covalently insert LOV domains into the polymerase protein, while preserving its activity and generating new light-responsive allosteric coupling.

Native mass spectrometry reveals the conformational diversity of the UVR8 photoreceptor.

UVR8 is a plant photoreceptor protein that regulates photomorphogenic and protective responses to UV light. The inactive, homodimeric state absorbs UV-B light, resulting in dissociation into monomers, which are considered to be the active state and comprise a ß-propeller core domain and intrinsically disordered N- and C-terminal tails. The C terminus is required for functional binding to signaling partner COP1. To date, however, structural studies have only been conducted with the core domain where the terminal tails have been truncated. Here, we report structural investigations of full-length UVR8 using native ion mobility mass spectrometry adapted for photoactivation. We show that, while truncated UVR8 photoconverts from a single conformation of dimers to a single monomer conformation, the full-length protein exists in numerous conformational families. The full-length dimer adopts both a compact state and an extended state where the C terminus is primed for activation. In the monomer the extended C terminus destabilizes the core domain to produce highly extended yet stable conformations, which we propose are the fully active states that bind COP1. Our results reveal the conformational diversity of full-length UVR8. We also demonstrate the potential power of native mass spectrometry to probe functionally important structural dynamics of photoreceptor proteins throughout nature.

Aureochromes - Blue Light Receptors.

A variety of living organisms including bacteria, fungi, animals, and plants use blue light (BL) to adapt to changing ambient light. Photosynthetic forms (plants and algae) require energy of light for photosynthesis, movements, development, and regulation of activity. Several complex light-sensitive systems evolved in eukaryotic cells to use the information of light efficiently with photoreceptors selectively absorbing various segments of the solar spectrum, being the first components in the light signal transduction chain. They are most diverse in algae. Photosynthetic stramenopiles, which received chloroplasts from red algae during secondary symbiosis, play an important role in ecosystems and aquaculture, being primary producers. These taxa acquired the ability to use BL for regulation of such processes as phototropism, chloroplast photo-relocation movement, and photomorphogenesis. A new type of BL receptor - aureochrome (AUREO) - was identified in Vaucheria frigida in 2007. AUREO consists of two domains: bZIP (basic-region leucine zipper) domain and LOV (light-oxygen-voltage-sensing) domain, and thus this photoreceptor is a BL-sensitive transcription factor. This review presents current data on the structure, mechanisms of action, and biochemical features of aureochromes.

Blue-Light Receptors for Optogenetics.

Sensory photoreceptors underpin light-dependent adaptations of organismal physiology, development, and behavior in nature. Adapted for optogenetics, sensory photoreceptors become genetically encoded actuators and reporters to enable the noninvasive, spatiotemporally accurate and reversible control by light of cellular processes. Rooted in a mechanistic understanding of natural photoreceptors, artificial photoreceptors with customized light-gated function have been engineered that greatly expand the scope of optogenetics beyond the original application of light-controlled ion flow. As we survey presently, UV/blue-light-sensitive photoreceptors have particularly allowed optogenetics to transcend its initial neuroscience applications by unlocking numerous additional cellular processes and parameters for optogenetic intervention, including gene expression, DNA recombination, subcellular localization, cytoskeleton dynamics, intracellular protein stability, signal transduction cascades, apoptosis, and enzyme activity. The engineering of novel photoreceptors benefits from powerful and reusable design strategies, most importantly light-dependent protein association and (un)folding reactions. Additionally, modified versions of these same sensory photoreceptors serve as fluorescent proteins and generators of singlet oxygen, thereby further enriching the optogenetic toolkit. The available and upcoming UV/blue-light-sensitive actuators and reporters enable the detailed and quantitative interrogation of cellular signal networks and processes in increasingly more precise and illuminating manners.

Variation in LOV Photoreceptor Activation Dynamics Probed by Time-Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy.

The light, oxygen, voltage (LOV) domain proteins are blue light photoreceptors that utilize a noncovalently bound flavin mononucleotide (FMN) cofactor as the chromophore. The modular nature of these proteins has led to their wide adoption in the emerging fields of optogenetics and optobiology, where the LOV domain has been fused to a variety of output domains leading to novel light-controlled applications. In this work, we extend our studies of the subpicosecond to several hundred microsecond transient infrared spectroscopy of the isolated LOV domain AsLOV2 to three full-length photoreceptors in which the LOV domain is fused to an output domain: the LOV-STAS protein, YtvA, the LOV-HTH transcription factor, EL222, and the LOV-histidine kinase, LovK. Despite differences in tertiary structure, the overall pathway leading to cysteine adduct formation from the FMN triplet state is highly conserved, although there are slight variations in rate. However, significant differences are observed in the vibrational spectra and kinetics after adduct formation, which are directly linked to the specific output function of the LOV domain. While the rate of adduct formation varies by only 3.6-fold among the proteins, the subsequent large-scale structural changes in the full-length LOV photoreceptors occur over the micro- to submillisecond time scales and vary by orders of magnitude depending on the different output function of each LOV domain.

Structural and evolutionary aspects of algal blue light receptors of the cryptochrome and aureochrome type.

Blue-light reception plays a pivotal role for algae to adapt to changing environmental conditions. In this review we summarize the current structural and mechanistic knowledge about flavin-dependent algal photoreceptors. We especially focus on the cryptochrome and aureochrome type photoreceptors in the context of their evolutionary divergence. Despite similar photochemical characteristics to orthologous photoreceptors from higher plants and animals the algal blue-light photoreceptors have developed a set of unique structural and mechanistic features that are summarized below.

Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Provides New Insights into Chromophore Structure in Phytochrome Photoreceptors.

Phytochromes are red/far-red photochromic photoreceptors acting as master regulators of development in higher plants, thereby controlling transcription of about 20 % of their genes. Light-induced isomerization of the bilin chromophore leads to large rearrangements in protein structure, whereby the role of protonation dynamics and charge distribution is of particular interest. To help unravel the inherent mechanisms, we present two-dimensional dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) enhanced solid-state magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectra of the functional sensory module of the cyanobacterial phytochrome Cph1. To this end, the pyrrole ring nitrogen signals were assigned unequivocally, enabling us to locate the positive charge of the phycocyanobilin (PCB) chromophore. To help analyze proton exchange pathways, the proximity of PCB ring nitrogen atoms and functionally relevant H2 O molecules was also determined. Our study demonstrates the value of DNP in biological solid-state MAS NMR spectroscopy.

LOVTRAP: an optogenetic system for photoinduced protein dissociation.

LOVTRAP is an optogenetic approach for reversible light-induced protein dissociation using protein A fragments that bind to the LOV domain only in the dark, with tunable kinetics and a >150-fold change in the dissociation constant (Kd). By reversibly sequestering proteins at mitochondria, we precisely modulated the proteins' access to the cell edge, demonstrating a naturally occurring 3-mHz cell-edge oscillation driven by interactions of Vav2, Rac1, and PI3K proteins.

Allosteric communication between DNA-binding and light-responsive domains of diatom class I aureochromes.

The modular architecture of aureochrome blue light receptors, found in several algal groups including diatoms, is unique by having the LOV-type photoreceptor domain fused to the C-terminus of its putative effector, an N-terminal DNA-binding bZIP module. The structural and functional understanding of aureochromes' light-dependent signaling mechanism is limited, despite their promise as an optogenetic tool. We show that class I aureochromes 1a and 1c from the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum are regulated in a light-independent circadian rhythm. These aureochromes are capable to form functional homo- and heterodimers, which recognize the ACGT core sequence within the canonical 'aureo box', TGACGT, in a light-independent manner. The bZIP domain holds a more folded and less flexible but extended conformation in the duplex DNA-bound state. FT-IR spectroscopy in the absence and the presence of DNA shows light-dependent helix unfolding in the LOV domain, which leads to conformational changes in the bZIP region. The solution structure of DNA bound to aureochrome points to a tilted orientation that was further validated by molecular dynamics simulations. We propose that aureochrome signaling relies on an allosteric pathway from LOV to bZIP that results in conformational changes near the bZIP-DNA interface without major effects on the binding affinity.

Functional and topological diversity of LOV domain photoreceptors.

Light-oxygen-voltage sensitive (LOV) flavoproteins are ubiquitous photoreceptors that mediate responses to environmental cues. Photosensory inputs are transduced into signaling outputs via structural rearrangements in sensor domains that consequently modulate the activity of an effector domain or multidomain clusters. Establishing the diversity in effector function and sensor-effector topology will inform what signaling mechanisms govern light-responsive behaviors across multiple kingdoms of life and how these signals are transduced. Here, we report the bioinformatics identification of over 6,700 candidate LOV domains (including over 4,000 previously unidentified sequences from plants and protists), and insights from their annotations for ontological function and structural arrangements. Motif analysis identified the sensors from ∼42 million ORFs, with strong statistical separation from other flavoproteins and non-LOV members of the structurally related Per-aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT)-Sim family. Conserved-domain analysis determined putative light-regulated function and multidomain topologies. We found that for certain effectors, sensor-effector linker length is discretized based on both phylogeny and the preservation of α-helical heptad repeats within an extended coiled-coil linker structure. This finding suggests that preserving sensor-effector orientation is a key determinant of linker length, in addition to ancestry, in LOV signaling structure-function. We found a surprisingly high prevalence of effectors with functions previously thought to be rare among LOV proteins, such as regulators of G protein signaling, and discovered several previously unidentified effectors, such as lipases. This work highlights the value of applying genomic and transcriptomic technologies to diverse organisms to capture the structural and functional variation in photosensory proteins that are vastly important in adaptation, photobiology, and optogenetics.

Evolutionary aspects of plant photoreceptors.

Plant photoreceptors link environmental light cues with physiological responses, determining how individual plants complete their life cycles. Structural and functional evolution of photoreceptors has co-occurred as plants diversified and faced the challenge of new light environments, during the transition of plants to land and as substantial plant canopies evolved. Large-scale comparative sequencing projects allow us for the first time to document photoreceptor evolution in understudied clades, revealing some surprises. Here we review recent progress in evolutionary studies of three photoreceptor families: phytochromes, phototropins and neochromes.

Blue-light-regulated transcription factor, Aureochrome, in photosynthetic stramenopiles.

During the course of evolution through various endosymbiotic processes, diverse photosynthetic eukaryotes acquired blue light (BL) responses that do not use photosynthetic pathways. Photosynthetic stramenopiles, which have red algae-derived chloroplasts through secondary symbiosis, are principal primary producers in aquatic environments, and play important roles in ecosystems and aquaculture. Through secondary symbiosis, these taxa acquired BL responses, such as phototropism, chloroplast photo-relocation movement, and photomorphogenesis similar to those which green plants acquired through primary symbiosis. Photosynthetic stramenopile BL receptors were undefined until the discovery in 2007, of a new type of BL receptor, the aureochrome (AUREO), from the photosynthetic stramenopile alga, Vaucheria. AUREO has a bZIP domain and a LOV domain, and thus BL-responsive transcription factor. AUREO orthologs are only conserved in photosynthetic stramenopiles, such as brown algae, diatoms, and red tide algae. Here, a brief review is presented of the role of AUREOs as photoreceptors for these diverse BL responses and their biochemical properties in photosynthetic stramenopiles.

Structure of a Native-like Aureochrome 1a LOV Domain Dimer from Phaeodactylum tricornutum.

Light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) domains absorb blue light for mediating various biological responses in all three domains of life. Aureochromes from stramenopile algae represent a subfamily of photoreceptors that differs by its inversed topology with a C-terminal LOV sensor and an N-terminal effector (basic region leucine zipper, bZIP) domain. We crystallized the LOV domain including its flanking helices, A'α and Jα, of aureochrome 1a from Phaeodactylum tricornutum in the dark state and solved the structure at 2.8 Å resolution. Both flanking helices contribute to the interface of the native-like dimer. Small-angle X-ray scattering shows light-induced conformational changes limited to the dimeric envelope as well as increased flexibility in the lit state for the flanking helices. These rearrangements are considered to be crucial for the formation of the light-activated dimer. Finally, the LOV domain of the class 2 aureochrome PtAUREO2 was shown to lack a chromophore because of steric hindrance caused by M301.

Ubiquitous distribution of helmchrome in phototactic swarmers of the stramenopiles.

Most swarmers (swimming cells) of the stramenopile group, ranging from unicellular protist to giant kelps (brown algae), have two heterogeneous flagella: a long anterior flagellum (AF) and a relatively shorter posterior flagellum (PF). These flagellated cells often exhibit phototaxis upon light stimulation, although the mechanism by which how the phototactic response is regulated remains largely unknown. A flavoprotein concentrating at the paraflagellar body (PFB) on the basal part of the PF, which can emit green autofluorescence under blue light irradiance, has been proposed as a possible blue light photoreceptor for brown algal phototaxis although the nature of the flavoprotein still remains elusive. Recently, we identified helmchrome as a PF-specific flavoprotein protein in a LC-MS/MS-based proteomics study of brown algal flagella (Fu et al. 2014). To verify the conservation of helmchrome, in the present study, the absence or presence and the localization of helmchrome in swarmers of various algal species were investigated. The results showed that helmchrome was only detected in phototactic swarmers but not the non-phototactic ones of the stramenopile group. Electron microscopy further revealed that the helmchrome detectable swarmers bear a conserved PFB-eyespot complex, which may serve as structural basis for light sensing. It is speculated that all three conserved properties: helmchrome, the PFB structure, and the eyespot apparatus, will be essential parts for phototaxis of stramenopile swarmers.

Molecular Mechanism of Photozipper, a Light-Regulated Dimerizing Module Consisting of the bZIP and LOV Domains of Aureochrome-1.

Aureochrome-1 (AUREO1) is a blue light (BL) receptor responsible for the BL-induced blanching of a stramenopile alga, Vaucheria frigida. The AUREO1 protein contains a central basic region/leucine zipper (bZIP) domain, and a C-terminal light-oxygen-voltage-sensing (LOV) domain. BL induces the dimerization of monomeric AUREO1, which subsequently increases the affinity of this transcription factor for its target DNA [Hisatomi, O., et al. (2014) J. Biol. Chem. 289, 17379-17391]. We constructed a synthetic gene encoding N-terminally truncated monomeric AUREO1 (designated Photozipper) to elucidate the molecular mechanism of this BL-regulated transcription factor and to develop it as an optogenetic tool. In this study, four different Photozipper (PZ) protein constructs were prepared comprising different N-terminal truncations. The monomer-dimer equilibria of the PZ constructs were investigated in the dark and light states. Dynamic light scattering and size-exclusion chromatography analyses revealed that the apparent dissociation constants of PZ dimers with and without the ZIP region were ~100 and 30 µM, respectively, indicating that the ZIP region stabilized the monomeric form in the dark state. In the light state, fluorescence resonance energy transfer analyses demonstrated that deletion of the ZIP region increased the dissociation constant from ~0.15 to 0.6 µM, suggesting that intermolecular LOV-LOV and ZIP-ZIP interactions stabilized the dimeric forms. Our results suggest that synergistic interactions between the LOV and bZIP domains stabilize the monomeric form in the dark state and the dimeric form in the light state, which possibly contributes to the function of PZ as a BL-regulated molecular switch.