The seminars take place on the Montpellier Institut Agro/INRAE Campus of La Gaillarde (2, place P. Viala Montpellier)
Thusday september 11, 2025 – 14h – amphi 206
Application of BLINK1 optogenetic tool in fundamental and translational plant research
Thanh Hao Nguyen
Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biophysics, University of Glasgow, UK
Blue-light–induced K+ channel 1 (BLINK1) is a synthetic channel created by fusing the plant LOV2-Jα photosensor to the virus K+ channel Kcv. In 2019, BLINK1 was shown to accelerate stomatal opening and closure when expressed in Arabidopsis guard cells. Building on this success, we have successfully translated this optogenetic tool into the crop species Brassica oleracea. Currently, we are expressing BLINK1 in various plant tissues to better understand stomatal movement mechanisms as well as explore further potential applications in plant research.