AAV with CamKII promoter driven hChR2(E123A)-Venus

This AAV expresses hChR2(E123A)-Venus driven by a neuron CamKII promoter.

This 1.3 Kb promoter is derived from the murine α-Calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII), a gene with expression restricted to excitatory neurons in the neocortex and hippocampus. In cortical neurons, it was shown that the promoter activity of CaMKII(1.3) is about double that of CaMKII(2.4), probably due to some inhibitory element(s).

Channelrhodopsins are light-gated ion channels that exist naturally in microalgae. 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(E123A) mutant accelerates the open state decay but reduces photocurrent amplitudes. Its maximal spectrum is near 485nM