Tryptophan's use in the LITE-1 photoreceptor of the nematode C.Elegans*

The nematode C. Elegans displays a novel photoreceptor LITE-1 which it uses to mediate avoidance responses to blue light. In a recent paper (1) it has been shown that similar avoidance responses can be recreated with the usage of properly set radio waves. As papers highlight that aromatic amino acids such as tryptophan may have a part in the photoreceptive properties of LITE-1 (2)(3), we attempt to correlate the location and activation energies of tryptophan and other aromatics to the energy provided by a variety of wave types to classify C. Elegans responses to each.

1:Kline et al. submitted (2025)

2:.Christie et al. 2012 Mar 23 Science 335(6075):1492-6

3: Gong et al. 2016 Nov 17;Cell 167(5):1252-1263