Photoswitchable Protein Degradation: A Generalizable Control Module for Cellular Function?

In this issue of Chemistry & Biology , Renicke et al. report a photosensitive degron (psd) consisting of the LOV2 domain fused to a protein degradation sequence. This design enabled light-dependent protein degradation in yeast. When psd was fused to cell-cycle-dependent proteins, it controlled cell cycle by light with spatiotemporal precision.