Figure 5. Gene transcription is rapidly disrupted on cessation of OptoCAR signaling.

1. RT‐qPCR analysis of relative mRNA levels for four representative genes following OptoCAR‐mediated T‐cell activation. OptoCAR‐T cell conjugates were activated in the dark (signaling‐competent) state for a period of 3 h before light‐mediated disruption of signaling (open circles) or maintained for a further 60 min in the dark (filled circles). The relative mRNA values were calculated by subtracting baseline value before scaling to mean output between 3 and 4 h. Individual datasets are presented as gray lines, with bars showing mean ± SEM (n = 3). Raw cRQ plots for all datasets are provided in Appendix Fig S2, and RQ values can be found in Dataset EV1.
2. The datasets from (A) are expanded to show the effect of illumination on the relative mRNA level of designated genes. As above, datasets are normalized to the mean mRNA level for the dark state values over the 60‐min period. Bars show mean ± SEM (n = 3).
3. The ratio of relative mRNA in the light compared with dark state was calculated for each time point. An approximate half‐life for mRNA decay is shown with dotted lines. Bars show mean ± SEM (n = 3).