Optogenetics

The growth regulation occurs at multiple time scales; the long-range regulation, e.g., transcription factors, are prone to compensatory effects, which makes it challenging to distill a primary response. We focus on the very important time scale of ~seconds-minutes, representing dynamic cell wall chemistry regulation. We use optogenetics to elucidate the short-term regulation of growth. This approach permits to perturb and follow in real-time the key growth parameters in a spatially and temporarily confined manner compatible with the native regulatory networks.

© K.T. Haas. A photostimulated dancing membrane in tobacco leaf epidermal cells. Test of Zeiss LSM 980 Airyscan 2.