Organisms of all domains of life use photoreceptor proteins to sense and respond to light.
The light-sensitivity of photoreceptor proteins arises from bound chromophores such as …

Genetically encoded, single-component optogenetic tools have made a significant impact on
neuroscience, enabling specific modulation of selected cells within complex neural tissues …

Microbial rhodopsins are a family of photoactive retinylidene proteins widespread
throughout the microbial world. They are notable for their diversity of function, using …

Channelrhodopsins such as channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) can drive spiking with millisecond
precision in a wide variety of cells, tissues and animal species. However, several properties …

Signaling photoreceptors use the information contained in the absorption of a photon to
modulate biological activity in plants and a wide range of organisms. The fundamental—and …

Here we describe bi-stable channelrhodopsins that convert a brief pulse of light into a stable
step in membrane potential. These molecularly engineered probes nevertheless retain …

Channelrhodopsins (ChRs) are light‐activated channels from algae that provide these
organisms with fast sensors to visible light for phototaxis. Since its discovery …

The introduction of two microbial opsin–based tools, channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) and
halorhodopsin (NpHR), to neuroscience has generated interest in fast, multimodal, cell type …

Vitamin A (all-trans-retinol, 1, Figure 1) is considered the most multifunctional vitamin in the
human body. 1 It plays key roles in many physiological processes such as vision …

Channelrhodopsins (ChRs) are directly light-gated ion channels that function as sensory
photoreceptors in flagellated green algae, allowing these algae to identify optimal light …