External Seminar Américo Tavares Ranzani "Switching Genes with Light: RNA-Level Control Using PAL"

Speaker: Américo Tavares Ranzani - Brazilian Biorenewables National Laboratory (LNBR), Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), Campinas, Brazil

Title: Switching Genes with Light: RNA-Level Control Using PAL

Abstract:
Sensory photoreceptors mediate numerous light-dependent adaptations across organisms. In optogenetics, photoreceptors are used as switches for the reversible, non-invasive, and spatiotemporally precise control of various cellular processes. The light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) receptor PAL from the actinobacterium Nakamurella multipartita belongs to the ANTAR family and binds small RNA aptamers with sequence specificity upon blue-light illumination. In this talk, different systems that employ PAL to induce or repress gene expression in Escherichia coli will be presented, providing new optogenetic tools that act at the mRNA level.

Invited by Pavel Müller