PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Montserrat Porta-de-la-Riva
AU  - Adriana Carolina Gonzalez
AU  - Neus Sanfeliu-Cerdán
AU  - Shadi Karimi
AU  - Sara González-Bolívar
AU  - Luis Felipe Morales-Curiel
AU  - Cedric Hurth
AU  - Michael Krieg
TI  - Deploying photons for communication within neuronal networks
AID  - 10.1101/2021.08.02.454613
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.08.02.454613
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/08/02/2021.08.02.454613.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/08/02/2021.08.02.454613.full
AB  - Deficiencies in neurotransmission lead to neurological disorders or misinterpretation of perceived threats. To restore defects in cellular communication, we developed a synthetic, photon-assisted synaptic transmission (PhAST) system. PhAST is based on luciferases and channelrhodopsins that enable the transmission of a neuronal state across space, using photons as neurotransmitters. We demonstrate the ability to overcome synaptic barriers and rescue the behavioral deficit of a genetically engineered glutamate mutant with conditional, Ca2+-triggered photon emission between two cognate neurons of the Caenorhabditis elegans nociceptive avoidance circuit. We also deploy these ingredients for asynaptic transmission between two unrelated cells in a sexually dimorphic neuronal network. Functional PhAST could sensitize otherwise poorly responsive males to touch and hence expand the behavioral repertoire. Our study, thus, establishes a powerful framework for complex photon-based communication between neurons in a living animal, that can readily be expanded to synthetic neuronal networks, organoids or non-invasive brain-machine interfaces.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.