Figure 7.

Non-membranous opto-dimerisers. (A) Dimerization by light. There are several available light-activated dimerisers such as CRY2 and CIB1 (others are portrayed too, see Figure 8). Heterodimerisation allows the coupling of complementary fragments or separated proteins upon photo-illumination. (B) Vesicle control by CRY2/CIB1. Different Rab GTPases, a family of proteins that bind to different membranes, were fused to CIB1 and co-expressed in cells with CRY2-YFP. In darkness, vesicle transport behaved normally, and CRY2 was found freely diffusing in the cell. Blue-light activation resulted in the aggregation of CRY2/CIB1-Rab GTPase as photoactivated-(pa)CRY2 not only binds to CIB1 but is also attracted to other paCRY2. (C) Control of vesicle-dependent processes. Rab GTPases mediate processes such as receptor transport, protein sorting, endocytosis, and protein secretion, thus using CIB1-Rab GTPase/CRY2-YFP it is possible to control such processes dependant on the chosen Rab GTPase.