Frank AylwardAnother interesting study suggesting that giant viruses can control phototaxis in their hosts during infection
"Hijacking of internal calcium dynamics by intracellularly residing viral rhodopsins"
"... we show here that light irradiation reversibly modified tail movements of OLPVR1-expressing frog tadpoles."
Hijacking of internal calcium dynamics by intracellularly residing viral rhodopsins - Nature Communications
Rhodopsins are ubiquitous light-driven membrane proteins that have diverse functions in nature, and value as optogenetics tools. Here the authors characterise type 1 viral channelrhodopsins, showing that they regulate intracellular calcium and can be used for the photocontrol of muscle contraction in vivo.
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