Development of a Photoactivatable CaMKII for the Optical Manipulation in Single-synapses—Local Optogenetics

The optogenetic method allows us to manipulate cellular activity with high spatiotemporal resolution. The most widely used optogenetic tool is channelrhodopsin-2 that can be utilized to control neuronal activity at the cellular level. However, optogenetic tools capable of inducing synaptic plasticity at the level of single synapses (spines) have been lacking. We recently developed a photoactivatable CaMKII by fusing a light-sensitive domain, LOV2, to CaMKIIα. Combining two-photon excitation, we successfully activated photoactivatable CaMKII in single spines and induced long-term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampal neurons. The manipulation of LTP at the single spines (we call it “local optogenetics”) will find many applications in neuroscience and other fields.