Optical Control of a Biological Reaction–Diffusion System |
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| Authors: | Philipp Glock Dr. Johannes Broichhagen Simon Kretschmer Philipp Blumhardt Jonas Mücksch Prof.Dr. Dirk Trauner Prof.Dr. Petra Schwille |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Cellular and Molecular Biophysics, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany;2. Department of Chemistry, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany;3. Current address: Department of Chemical Biology, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany;4. Current address: Department of Chemistry, Silver Center for Arts and Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA |
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| Abstract: | Patterns formed by reaction and diffusion are the foundation for many phenomena in biology. However, the experimental study of reaction–diffusion (R–D) systems has so far been dominated by chemical oscillators, for which many tools are available. In this work, we developed a photoswitch for the Min system of Escherichia coli, a versatile biological in vitro R–D system consisting of the antagonistic proteins MinD and MinE. A MinE‐derived peptide of 19 amino acids was covalently modified with a photoisomerizable crosslinker based on azobenzene to externally control peptide‐mediated depletion of MinD from the membrane. In addition to providing an on–off switch for pattern formation, we achieve frequency‐locked resonance with a precise 2D spatial memory, thus allowing new insights into Min protein action on the membrane. Taken together, we provide a tool to study phenomena in pattern formation using biological agents. |
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| Keywords: | chemical oscillators optical control photoswitches pattern formation synthetic biology |
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