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Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the binding of Ca2+ is required for the activation of calmodulin. Once bound to Ca2+, calmodulin acts as part of a calcium signal transduction pathway by modifying its interactions with various target proteins such as kinases or phosphatases.
Calcium ions (Ca2+) contribute to the physiology and biochemistry of organisms' cells. They play an important role in signal transduction pathways, where they act as a second messenger, in neurotransmitter release from neurons, in contraction of all muscle cell types, and in fertilization. Many enzymes require calcium ions as a cofactor, including several of the coagulation factors. Extracellular calcium is also important for maintaining the potential difference across excitable cell membranes, as well as proper bone formation.
Fura-2, an aminopolycarboxylic acid, is a ratiometric fluorescent dye which binds to free intracellular calcium. It was the first widely used dye for calcium imaging, and remains very popular. Fura-2 is excited at 340 nm and 380 nm of light, and the ratio of the emissions at those wavelengths is directly related to the amount of intracellular calcium. Regardless of the presence of calcium, Fura-2 emits at 510 nm of light. The use of the ratio automatically cancels out confounding variables, such as variable dye concentration and cell thickness, making Fura-2 one of the most appreciated tools to quantify calcium levels. The high photon yield of fura-2 allowed the first real time measurements of calcium inside living cells in 1986. More recently, genetically encoded calcium indicators based on spectral variants of the green fluorescent protein, such as Cameleons, have supplemented the use of Fura-2 and other small molecule dyes for calcium imaging, but Fura-2 remains faster.
Visual phototransduction is the sensory transduction process of the visual system by which light is detected to yield nerve impulses in the rod cells and cone cells in the retina of the eye in humans and other vertebrates. It relies on the visual cycle, a sequence of biochemical reactions in which a molecule of retinal bound to opsin undergoes photoisomerization, initiates a cascade that signals detection of the photon, and is indirectly restored to its photosensitive isomer for reuse. Phototransduction in some invertebrates such as fruit flies relies on similar processes.
Calcium signaling is the use of calcium ions (Ca2+) to communicate and drive intracellular processes often as a step in signal transduction. Ca2+ is important for cellular signalling, for once it enters the cytosol of the cytoplasm it exerts allosteric regulatory effects on many enzymes and proteins. Ca2+ can act in signal transduction resulting from activation of ion channels or as a second messenger caused by indirect signal transduction pathways such as G protein-coupled receptors.
Aequorin is a calcium-activated photoprotein isolated from the hydrozoan Aequorea victoria. Its bioluminescence was studied decades before the protein was isolated from the animal by Osamu Shimomura in 1962. In the animal, the protein occurs together with the green fluorescent protein to produce green light by resonant energy transfer, while aequorin by itself generates blue light.
Yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) is a genetic mutant of green fluorescent protein (GFP) originally derived from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. Its excitation peak is 513 nm and its emission peak is 527 nm. Like the parent GFP, YFP is a useful tool in cell and molecular biology because the excitation and emission peaks of YFP are distinguishable from GFP which allows for the study of multiple processes/proteins within the same experiment.
Calmodulin-binding proteins are, as their name implies, proteins which bind calmodulin. Calmodulin can bind to a variety of proteins through a two-step binding mechanism, namely "conformational and mutually induced fit", where typically two domains of calmodulin wrap around an emerging helical calmodulin binding domain from the target protein.
The EF hand is a helix–loop–helix structural domain or motif found in a large family of calcium-binding proteins.
Roger Yonchien Tsien was an American biochemist. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for his discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, in collaboration with organic chemist Osamu Shimomura and neurobiologist Martin Chalfie. Tsien was also a pioneer of calcium imaging.
Calmodulin 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CALM2 gene. A member of the calmodulin family of signaling molecules, it is an intermediary between calcium ions, which act as a second messenger, and many intracellular processes, such as the contraction of cardiac muscle.
Calcium binding protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CABP1 gene. Calcium-binding protein 1 is a calcium-binding protein discovered in 1999. It has two EF hand motifs and is expressed in neuronal cells in such areas as hippocampus, habenular nucleus of the epithalamus, Purkinje cell layer of the cerebellum, and the amacrine cells and cone bipolar cells of the retina.
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GCaMP is a genetically encoded calcium indicator (GECI) initially developed in 2001 by Junichi Nakai. It is a synthetic fusion of green fluorescent protein (GFP), calmodulin (CaM), and M13, a peptide sequence from myosin light-chain kinase. When bound to Ca2+, GCaMP fluoresces green with a peak excitation wavelength of 480 nm and a peak emission wavelength of 510 nm. It is used in biological research to measure intracellular Ca2+ levels both in vitro and in vivo using virally transfected or transgenic cell and animal lines. The genetic sequence encoding GCaMP can be inserted under the control of promoters exclusive to certain cell types, allowing for cell-type specific expression of GCaMP. Since Ca2+ is a second messenger that contributes to many cellular mechanisms and signaling pathways, GCaMP allows researchers to quantify the activity of Ca2+-based mechanisms and study the role of Ca2+ ions in biological processes of interest.
Calcium imaging is a microscopy technique to optically measure the calcium (Ca2+) status of an isolated cell, tissue or medium. Calcium imaging takes advantage of calcium indicators, fluorescent molecules that respond to the binding of Ca2+ ions by fluorescence properties. Two main classes of calcium indicators exist: chemical indicators and genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECI). This technique has allowed studies of calcium signalling in a wide variety of cell types. In neurons, action potential generation is always accompanied by rapid influx of Ca2+ ions. Thus, calcium imaging can be used to monitor the electrical activity in hundreds of neurons in cell culture or in living animals, which has made it possible observe the activity of neuronal circuits during ongoing behavior.
HaloTag is a self-labeling protein tag. It is a 297 residue protein derived from a bacterial enzyme, designed to covalently bind to a synthetic ligand. The bacterial enzyme can be fused to various proteins of interest. The synthetic ligand is chosen from a number of available ligands in accordance with the type of experiments to be performed. This bacterial enzyme is a haloalkane dehalogenase, which acts as a hydrolase and is designed to facilitate visualization of the subcellular localization of a protein of interest, immobilization of a protein of interest, or capture of the binding partners of a protein of interest within its biochemical environment. The HaloTag is composed of two covalently bound segments including a haloalkane dehalogenase and a synthetic ligand of choice. These synthetic ligands consist of a reactive chloroalkane linker bound to a functional group. Functional groups can either be biotin or can be chosen from five available fluorescent dyes including Coumarin, Oregon Green, Alexa Fluor 488, diAcFAM, and TMR. These fluorescent dyes can be used in the visualization of either living or chemically fixed cells.
Genetically encoded voltage indicator is a protein that can sense membrane potential in a cell and relate the change in voltage to a form of output, often fluorescent level. It is a promising optogenetic recording tool that enables exporting electrophysiological signals from cultured cells, live animals, and ultimately human brain. Examples of notable GEVIs include ArcLight, ASAP1, ASAP3, Archons, SomArchon, and Ace2N-mNeon.
Fiber photometry is a calcium imaging technique that captures 'bulk' or population-level calcium (Ca2+) activity from specific cell-types within a brain region or functional network in order to study neural circuits Population-level calcium activity can be correlated with behavioral tasks, such as spatial learning, memory recall and goal-directed behaviors. The technique involves the surgical implantation of fiber optics into the brains of living animals. The benefits to researchers are that optical fibers are simpler to implant, less invasive and less expensive than other calcium methods, and there is less weight and stress on the animal, as compared to miniscopes. It also allows for imaging of multiple interacting brain regions and integration with other neuroscience techniques. The limitations of fiber photometry are low cellular and spatial resolution, and the fact that animals must be securely tethered to a rigid fiber bundle, which may impact the naturalistic behavior of smaller mammals such as mice.
Optogenetics began with methods to alter neuronal activity with light, using e.g. channelrhodopsins. In a broader sense, optogenetic approaches also include the use of genetically encoded biosensors to monitor the activity of neurons or other cell types by measuring fluorescence or bioluminescence. Genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) are used frequently to monitor neuronal activity, but other cellular parameters such as membrane voltage or second messenger activity can also be recorded optically. The use of optogenetic sensors is not restricted to neuroscience, but plays increasingly important roles in immunology, cardiology and cancer research.
References
- ↑ Miyawaki A, Griesbeck O, Heim R, Tsien RY (1999). "Dynamic and quantitative Ca2+ measurements using improved Cameleons". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 96 (5): 2135–40. Bibcode:1999PNAS...96.2135M. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.5.2135 . PMC 26749 . PMID 10051607.
- ↑ Kerr R, Lev-Ram V, Baird G, Vincent P, Tsien RY, Schafer WR (2000). "Optical imaging of calcium transients in neurons and pharyngeal muscle of C. elegans". Neuron. 26 (3): 583–94. doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)81196-4 . PMID 10896155.
- ↑ Demaurex, Nicolas; Frieden, Maud (2003-08-01). "Measurements of the free luminal ER Ca2+ concentration with targeted "cameleon" fluorescent proteins". Cell Calcium. 34 (2): 109–119. doi:10.1016/S0143-4160(03)00081-2. ISSN 0143-4160.
- ↑ Miyawaki A, Llopis J, Heim R, et al. (1997). "Fluorescent indicators for Ca2+ based on green fluorescent proteins and calmodulin". Nature. 388 (6645): 882–7. Bibcode:1997Natur.388..882M. doi: 10.1038/42264 . PMID 9278050.
- ↑ Habuchi, Satoshi; Cotlet, Mircea; Hofkens, Johan; Dirix, Gunter; Michiels, Jan; Vanderleyden, Jos; Subramaniam, Vinod; De Schryver, Frans C. (December 2002). "Resonance Energy Transfer in a Calcium Concentration-Dependent Cameleon Protein". Biophysical Journal. 83 (6): 3499–3506. doi:10.1016/s0006-3495(02)75349-6. ISSN 0006-3495. PMC 1302424 . PMID 12496116.