The organelle interface emerges as a dynamic platform for a variety of biological responses. However, their study has been limited by the lack of tools to manipulate their occurrence in live cells spatiotemporally. Here, we report the development of a genetically encoded light-inducible tethering (LIT) system allowing the induction of contacts between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria, taking advantage of a pair of light-dependent heterodimerization called an iLID system. We demonstrate that the iLID-based LIT approach enables control of ER–mitochondria tethering with high spatiotemporal precision in various cell types including primary neurons, which will facilitate the functional study of ER–mitochondrial contacts.

中文翻译：

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内质网-线粒体束缚的光遗传学控制

细胞器界面作为各种生物学反应的动态平台而出现。然而，他们的研究受到缺乏时空操纵它们在活细胞中发生的工具的限制。在这里，我们报告了遗传编码的光诱导束缚（LIT）系统的发展，该系统允许利用称为iLID系统的一对依赖于光的异二聚体来诱导内质网（ER）和线粒体之间的接触。我们证明，基于iLID的LIT方法可以在包括原代神经元在内的各种细胞类型中以高时空精度控制ER-线粒体束缚，这将有助于ER-线粒体接触的功能研究。