SPATIO-TEMPORAL CONTROL OF PROTEIN INTERACTIONS

University of California System: University of California, San Francisco
posted on 03/09/2009

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BACKGROUND: There is a general need for dynamically regulatable protein binding domains to control functional protein interactions in a variety of experimental and commercial applications. The majority of such systems that have been developed are based on the administration of chemical dimerizers which require the slow, irreversible diffusion into the cell of small molecules that target the dimer-interface site. An alternative method is the control of protein interaction in any suitable host cell or organisms by light. This invention relates to a light-regulatable protein-protein interaction system based upon phytochromes, a family of photoreceptors that enable plants to adapt to their prevailing light environment.

TECHNOLOGY: UCSF inventors have developed the first genetically encoded system for the fine spatial and temporal control of the localization and activity of proteins on sub-micrometer and sub-second scales. The system has further been optimized to be modular and easily switched to future arbitrary signaling pairs and localization tags.