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. 2023 Jul 20;13(14):e4762. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4762

Figure 1. Schematic representation of the optogenetically activated cell death effectors (optoCDE) system.

Figure 1.

(A) OptoCDEs are inactive and monomeric in the dark state but are activated within seconds upon blue light illumination, which induces oligomerization of the Cry2olig photoactuator domain, activation of downstream substrates, and induction of cell death. (B) General architecture of major cell death effectors and design of optoCDE constructs. Cell death effectors used in the study generally consist of an adaptor domain (CARD or DED for caspases and RHIM for RIPK3) and an effector domain bearing protease (caspases), kinase (RIPK3), or membrane-disrupting (MLKL) function. In the optoCDEs, the effector domain is retained, while the adaptor is replaced with the Cry2olig-mCherry photoactuator module (mCherry is used to visualize optoCDE expression and/or clustering). (C) Schematic representation of major types of optoCDE constructs used in the study. The detailed description and evaluation of the optoCDE tools is available in the original paper (Shkarina et al., 2022). Figure adapted from Shkarina et al. (2022).