| 1.D.249. The Photo-responsive Zinc Ionophore (PZI) Family
In this situation, light is used to initiate the release of diffusible chemical signals from one population of vesicles to another. This triggers transmembrane cation transport in the receiver vesicles and amplifies the signal, in a manner reminiscent of signaling mechanisms in biology. Gartland et al. 2023 reported an example of a synthetic inter-vesicle signalling system,
in which diffusible chemical signals trigger transmembrane ion
transport in a manner reminiscent of signalling pathways in biology. The
system is derived from novel ortho-nitrobenzyl and BODIPY photo-caged
ZnII transporters, in which cation transport is triggered by
photo-decaging with UV or red light, respectively. This decaging
reaction can be used to trigger the release of the cationophores from a
small population of sender vesicles. This in turn triggers the transport
of ions across the membrane of a larger population of receiver
vesicles, but not across the sender vesicle membrane, leading to overall
inter-vesicle signal transduction and amplification.
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