Aion is a bistable anion-conducting channelrhodopsin that provides temporally extended and reversible neuronal silencing.

ABSTRACT: Optogenetic silencing allows to reveal the necessity of selected neuronal populations for various neurophysiological functions. These range from synaptic transmission and coordinated neuronal network activity to control of specific behaviors. An ideal single-component optogenetic silencing tool should be switchable between active and inactive states with precise timing while preserving its activity in the absence of light until switched to an inactive state. Although bistable anion-conducting channelrhodopsins (ACRs) were previously engineered to reach this goal, their conducting state lifetime was limited to only a few minutes and some ACRs were not fully switchable. Here we report Aion, a bistable ACR displaying a long-lasting open state with a spontaneous closing time constant close to

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez-Rozada S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9271052 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature