AAV with CMV promoter driven hChR2(T159C)-mCherry

This AAV expresses hChR2(T159C)-mCherry driven by an ubiquitous CMV promoter.

This roughly 0.6 Kb promoter is the commonly used human cytomegalovirus (CMV) immediate-early promoter/enhancer (CMV/IE).

hChR2 is a humanized version of ChR2 for mammalian expression. The wild-type, as well as a few mutations, provide the fastest excitation of the channelrhodopsins offered, and are widely used in optogenetics techniques in neuroscience. hChR2(T159C) shows slightly higher photocurrents than the hChR2(H134R), another commonly used optogenetics tool.