A Review of the Optical Control of Protein Function via Unnatural Amino Acid\ud Mutagenesis and Other Optogenetic Approaches

Biological processes are regulated with high spatial and temporal resolution at the\ud molecular, cellular, and systems level. To control and study processes with the same resolution,\ud researchers have employed light-sensitive moieties to optically activate and deactivate protein\ud function. Optical control is a non-invasive technique in which the amplitude, wavelength, spatial\ud location, and timing of the light illumination can be easily controlled. This review focuses on\ud applications of genetically encoded unnatural amino acids containing light-removable protecting\ud groups to optically trigger protein function, while also discussing select optogenetic approaches\ud using natural light-sensing domains to engineer optical control of biological processes