Light control of cellular processes by using photocaged abscisic acid.

Abscisic acid (ABA) was chemically modified with a photocaging group to promote photo-induced protein dimerization. This photocontrolled chemically induced dimerization (CID) method based on caged ABA enables dose-dependent light regulation of cellular processes, including transcription, protein translocation, signal transduction, and cytoskeletal remodeling, without the need to perform extensive protein engineering. Caged ABA can be easily modified to respond to different wavelengths of light. Consequently, this strategy should be applicable to the design of light-regulated protein dimerization systems and potentially be used orthogonally with other light-controlled CID systems.