In-silico studies of Macromolecules as Sensors

Photosensitive proteins are extremely interesting, since they can regulate many functional processes in living cells, through the change of their structure in response to light absorption. This activation produces processes such as photosynthesis and phototaxis, or biomass, which can be used as renewable form of energy. Moreover, optogenetics and superresolution fluorescence microscopy approaches have triggered the generation of genetically modified photosensitive proteins. Due to these implications, the characterization of photosensitive proteins and their functioning is of crucial importance in real life. This review aims to collect the fundamental theoretical issues and the prominent advances in dealing with photosensitive proteins, with particular attention to the modeling of the behavior and organization of these molecules in the realm of Proteotronics. Together with the most interesting results, we recall some computational tools developed to achieve these results. The overview is completed by some open questions that emerge in this field of research.