AAV with CamKII(0.4) promoter driven hChR2(C128S/D156A)-TdTomato

This AAV expresses hChR2(C128S/D156A)-TdTomato driven by a neuron CamKII(0.4) promoter.

This 0.4 Kb promoter is derived from murine α-Calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII), a gene with expression restricted to excitatory neurons in the neocortex and hippocampus. It was shown that the promoter activity of CaMKII(0.4) is almost identical to that of CaMKII(1.3) in cortical neurons, Compared to CaMKII(1.3), this short promoter allows cloning of longer gene of interest into the AAV construct .

hChR2 is a humanized version of ChR2 for mammalian expression. Wild-type ChR2, as well as a few of its mutations, provides the fastest excitation of the channelrhodopsins offered, and is widely used in in optogenetics techniques in neuroscience. hChR2(D156) mutant is another SFO mutation with a 6.9-minute open-state lifetime, and hChR2(C128S/D156A) double mutation creates a Stabilized Step Function Opsin (SSFO) with a stability of the active state up to 30 minutes.