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A general scheme summarizing the scope of sonogenetics including sonogenetic tools for either controlling or imaging biomolecular functions. Manipulating cellular functions can be achieved using thermal or mechanical sonogenetics. Heat-responsive promoters and repressors are utilized in the former, while mechanosensitive (MS) ion channels and mechanochemically reactive macromolecular systems are employed in the latter. These strategies ultimately lead to controlled protein activity, signalling pathways or gene expression. On the other hand, gas vesicles (GVs) have been devised as contrast agents to image biomolecular functions at the cellular level, by means of either exogenous administration of gas vesicle-producing microorganisms or genetically engineering target cells to express GVs endogenously.

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