[PDF] Imaging of morphological and biochemical hallmarks of apoptosis with optimized optogenetic tools | Semantic Scholar (2025)

This review provides an overview of optogenetic approaches connecting light-regulated protein-protein interaction or caging/uncaging events with steering the function of signaling proteins, including receptor tyrosine kinases, the T cell receptor and integrins, and their effector proteins.

Roles for each WASP-family member in apoptosis are explored and it is found that a subfamily consisting of JMY and WHAMM are critical for a rapid pathway of cell death.

Current knowledge of engineering of light-sensitive proteins including light-oxygen-voltage-sensing domain (LOV), cryptochrome (CRY2), phytochrome (PhyB and BphP), and fluorescent protein (FP)-based photosensitive domains (Dronpa and PhoCl) are summarized.

Recent advances of optogenetics in live cells and animal models are summarized, the emerging work that interlinks optogenetically with other research fields is presented, and exciting clinical and industrial efforts to employ optogenetic strategy toward disease intervention are reported.

This work developed a new optogenetic system, Opto-GPX4Deg, for light-induced degradation of the lipid reducing protein GPX4, which allows controlled ferroptosis induction with high precision in time and space and establishes cell death propagation as a feature of ferroPTosis.

Results indicated that LUWE prevents mitochondrial oxidative stress-mediated RPE damage via the MEK/ERK pathway, and elucidation of the molecular mechanism may provide a new protective strategy against retinal degeneration.

Wave of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase and AKT serine/threonine kinase activity pulses originate from apoptotic cells and propagate radially to healthy surrounding cells, maintaining epithelial homeostasis in response to mild or intense environmental insults.

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It is demonstrated that mitochondrial recruitment of a genetically encoded light-responsive Bax results in the release of mitochondrial proteins, downstream caspase-3 cleavage, changes in cellular morphology, and ultimately cell death.

A method to detect the accumulation of apoptotic cells in real time that is well suited for high‐throughput screens is described, which includes the caspase‐dependent apoptotic response to toxic compounds in multiple cell types and demonstrates that RNAi‐based gene silencing of candidate apoptotic regulators affects the apoptosis kinetics as expected.

A protocol for the targeted control of the activity of protein kinases in mammalian cells based on the photoreceptor cryptochrome 2 of Arabidopsis thaliana and its interaction partner CIB1 and blue light (450 nm)-induced binding of CRY2 to C IB1 is provided.

Overexpression of the ubiquitin ligase RSP5 can alleviate the oxidative-stress phenotype observed in cells lacking End3p by targeting Sla1p to the cortex and restoring actin remodelling capability, and a physiological link exists between actin regulation and cAMP signalling that regulates apoptosis in yeast.

A new approach to produce genetically encoded photoactivatable derivatives of Rac1, a key GTPase regulating actin cytoskeletal dynamics in metazoan cells, which was shown to inhibit RhoA in mouse embryonic fibroblasts, with inhibition modulated at protrusions and ruffles.

This review focuses on the molecular events of Bax activation through its interaction with the other proteins from the Bcl-2 family, and the mechanism by which Bax triggers the MOM permeabilization once activated.

It is shown that staurosporine triggers an immediate and gradual leakiness of the NE preceding the appearance of apoptotic hallmarks, and ER/NE Ca2+ is pinpointed as a general and physiologically relevant regulator of the permeability barrier function of the NPC.

The reported key step leading to Bak homo-oligomerisation following an apoptotic stimulus involves transient exposure of the Bak BH3 domain before it binds to the hydrophobic groove of another activated Bak molecule to form a novel symmetric dimer.

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