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Neuromodulatory signalingviaG protein-coupled receptor (GPCRs) plays a pivotal role in regulating neural network function and animal behavior. Recent efforts have led to the development of optogenetic tools to induce G protein-mediated signaling, with the promise of acute and cell type-specific manipulation of neuromodulatory signals. However, designing and deploying optogenetically functionalized GPCRs (optoXRs) with accurate specificity and activity to mimic endogenous signalingin vivoremains challenging. Here we optimized the design of optoXRs by considering evolutionary conserved GPCR-G protein interactions and demonstrate the feasibility of this approach using twoDrosophilaDopamine receptors (optoDopRs). We validated these optoDopRs showing that they exhibit high signaling specificity and light sensitivityin vitro.In vivowe detected receptor and cell type-specific effects of dopaminergic signaling in various behaviors including the ability of optoDopRs to rescue loss of the endogenous receptors. This work demonstrates that OptoXRs can enable optical control of neuromodulatory receptor specific signaling in functional and behavioral studies.