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Updated: Oct 27, 2025

Optical Control of a Neuronal Protein Using a Genetically Encoded Unnatural Amino Acid in Neurons
Published on: March 28, 2016
Circularly permuted AsLOV2 as an optogenetic module for engineering photoswitchable peptides
Lequn Geng1, Jiaqi Shen1, Wenjing Wang1
1Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. wenjwang@umich.edu and Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Abstract:
We re-engineered a commonly-used light-sensing protein, AsLOV2, using a circular permutation strategy to allow photoswitchable control of the C-terminus of a peptide. We demonstrate that the circularly permuted AsLOV2 can be used on its own or together with the original AsLOV2 for enhanced caging. In summary, circularly permuted AsLOV2 could expand the engineering capabilities of optogenetic tools.

