Gene regulatory interaction inference using twin cells

Transcription factors are known to play a major role in establishing and maintaining cell identity, and their interactions are frequently disrupted in disease states such as cancer. Inferring gene regulatory networks is therefore an important problem, but remains challenging due to noisy measurements and indirect interactions, among other factors. Recently divided “twin” cells offer a powerful tool to address this: they can help distinguish between multiple co-existing cell states and infer the directionality of regulatory relationships using two static single-cell RNA measurements combined with lineage tracing.

Light and temperature sensing proteins for optogenetic/thermogenetic control

Optogenetic and thermogenetic tools allow real-time cellular control with high spatiotemporal precision. There are already many optogenetic tools. One of the most well-known light-responding protein domains in the LOV (kight-oxygen-voltage) domain, which has been incorporated into optogenetic tools like AsLOV2 and BcLOV4. Recently, it has been shown that these proteins also respond to temperature and can be used as a thermogenetic tool. However, are these proteins rare exceptions or is this mode of dual sensing the rule? By studying their evolutionary homologs and their sequence and domain architecture, it might be possible to establish fundamental rules of sensing and further utilize these to build robust tools for cellular engineering.