PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kourtney L. Kroll
AU  - Alexander R. French
AU  - Tobin R. Sosnick
AU  - Ronald S. Rock
TI  - LILAC: Enhanced actin imaging with an optogenetic Lifeact
AID  - 10.1101/2022.04.07.487416
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.04.07.487416
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/04/08/2022.04.07.487416.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/04/08/2022.04.07.487416.full
AB  - We have designed an improved Lifeact variant that binds to actin under the control of light using the LOV2 protein. Light control enables one to subtract the pre-illumination signal of the unbound label, yielding an enhanced view of F-actin dynamics in cells. Furthermore, the tool eliminates actin network perturbations and cell sickness caused by Lifeact overexpression.Competing Interest StatementA provisional patent of the methods included in the manuscript are included in a provisional patent filing #63253420 entitled "Methods and Compositions Comprising Actin Binding Proteins".