Cryptochromes are photolyase-like blue light receptors that are conserved in plants and animals. Although the light-dependent catalytic mechanism of photolyase is well studied, the photochemical mechanism of cryptochromes remains largely unknown. Lack of an appropriate protein expression system to obtain photochemically active cryptochrome holoproteins is a technical obstacle for the study of plant cryptochromes. We report here an easy-to-use method to express and study Arabidopsis cryptochrome in HEK293T cells. Our results indicate that Arabidopsis cryptochromes expressed in HEK293T are photochemically active. We envision a broad use of this method in the functional investigation of plant proteins, especially in the large-scale analyses of photochemical activities of cryptochromes such as blue light-dependent protein–protein interactions.
CITATION STYLE
Yang, L., Wang, X., Deng, W., Mo, W., Gao, J., Liu, Q., … Zuo, Z. (2016). Using HEK293T expression system to study photoactive plant cryptochromes. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.00940
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