Summary Per-ARNT-Sim (PAS) domains serve as widely-distributed, versatile, sensor and interaction modules in signal transduction proteins. PAS sensors detect a wide range of chemical and physical stimuli and regulate the activity of functionally diverse effector domains. In contrast to this chemical, physical and functional diversity, the structure of the core of PAS domains is broadly conserved and comprises a five-stranded antiparallel β-sheet and several α-helices. Signals originate within the conserved core and generate structural and dynamic changes predominantly within the β-sheet, from which they propagate via amphipathic α-helical and coiled-coil linkers at the N- or C-termini of the core to the covalently-attached effector domain. Effector domains are typically dimeric; their activity appears to be largely regulated by signal-dependent changes in quaternary structure and dynamics. The signaling mechanisms of PAS and other signaling domains share common features, and these commonalities can be exploited to enable structure-based design of artificial photo- and chemosensors.

Signaling photoreceptors use the information contained in the absorption of a photon to modulate biological activity in plants and a wide range of organisms. The fundamental-and as yet imperfectly answered-question is, how is this achieved at the molecular level? We adopt the perspective of biophysicists interested in light-dependent signal transduction in nature and the three-dimensional structures that underpin signaling. Six classes of photoreceptors are known: light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) sensors, xanthopsins, phytochromes, blue-light sensors using flavin adenine dinucleotide (BLUF), cryptochromes, and rhodopsins. All are water-soluble proteins except rhodopsins, which are integral membrane proteins; all are based on a modular architecture except cryptochromes and rhodopsins; and each displays a distinct, light-dependent chemical process based on the photochemistry of their nonprotein chromophore, such as isomerization about a double bond (xanthopsins, phytochromes, and rhodopsins), formation or rupture of a covalent bond (LOV sensors), or electron transfer (BLUF sensors and cryptochromes).

Signal transduction proteins are organized into sensor (input) domains that perceive a signal and, in response, regulate the biological activity of effector (output) domains. We reprogrammed the input signal specificity of a normally oxygen-sensitive, light-inert histidine kinase by replacing its chemosensor domain by a light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) photosensor domain. Illumination of the resultant fusion kinase YF1 reduced net kinase activity by ~1000-fold in vitro. YF1 also controls gene expression in a light-dependent manner in vivo. Signals are transmitted from the LOV sensor domain to the histidine kinase domain via a 40–60° rotational movement within an α-helical coiled coil linker; light is acting as a rotary switch. These signaling principles are broadly applicable to domains linked by α-helices, and to both chemo- and photosensors. Conserved sequence motifs guide the rational design of light-regulated variants of histidine kinases and other proteins.

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