The study of two transmembrane autophagy proteins and the autophagy receptor, p62

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process across eukaryotes that is responsible for degradation of cargo such as aggregate-prone proteins, pathogens, damaged organelles, macromolecules etc. via its delivery to lysosomes. The process is known to involve the formation of a double-membraned structure, called autophagosome, that engulfs the cargo destined for degradation and delivers its contents by fusing with lysosomes. This process involves several proteins at its core which include two transmembrane proteins, ATG9 and VMP1. While ATG9 and VMP1 has been discovered for about a decade and half, the trafficking and function of these proteins remain relatively unclear. My work in this thesis identifies and characterises a novel trafficking route for ATG9 and VMP1 and shows that both these proteins traffic via the dynamin-independent ARF6-associated pathway. Moreover, I also show that these proteins physically interact with each other. In addition, the tools developed during these studies helped me identify a new role for the most common autophagy receptor protein, p62. I show that p62 can specifically associate with and sequester LC3-I in autophagy-impaired cells (ATG9 and ATG16 null cells) leading to formation of LC3-positive structures that can be misinterpreted as mature autophagosomes. Perturbations in the levels of p62 were seen to affect the formation of these LC3-positive structures in cells. This observation, therefore, questions the reliability of LC3-immunofluorescence assays in autophagy-impaired cells as method of assessing autophagy and points towards the homeostatic function played by p62 in autophagy-impaired cells.Commonwealth Scholarships Commission, U

Autophagy in Childhood Neurological Disorders

Autophagy is a tightly modulated lysosomal degradation pathway. Genetic disorders of autophagy during nervous system development may lead to developmental delay, neurodegeneration and other neurological signs in children. Here we aimed to summarize single gene disorders that perturb various steps of autophagy pathway and their roles in the causation of childhood neurological diseases. Numerous childhood-onset disorders are caused by mutations that impact the autophagy pathway. These can manifest with a range of features including ataxia, spastic paraplegia, and intellectual disability. Defective proteins causing such diseases can interfere with autophagy flux at different stages of the itinerary. Defective autophagy may be an important contributor to the pathological features of various childhood neurodegenerative disease and lead to the accumulation of aberrant protein and dysfunctional organelles. Insights into the relevant cell biological processes may help understand pathophysiological mechanisms and inspire autophagy-restoring therapeutic approaches.MR

LC3-positive structures are prominent in autophagy-deficient cells

Abstract: Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process across eukaryotes that degrades cargoes like aggregate-prone proteins, pathogens, damaged organelles and macromolecules via delivery to lysosomes. The process involves the formation of double-membraned autophagosomes that engulf the cargoes destined for degradation, sometimes with the help of autophagy receptors like p62, which are themselves autophagy substrates. LC3-II, a standard marker for autophagosomes, is generated by the conjugation of cytosolic LC3-I to phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) on the surface of nascent autophagosomes. As LC3-II is relatively specifically associated with autophagosomes and autolysosomes (in the absence of conditions stimulating LC3-associated phagocytosis), quantification of LC3-positive puncta is considered as a gold-standard assay for assessing the numbers of autophagosomes in cells. Here we find that the endogenous LC3-positive puncta become larger in cells where autophagosome formation is abrogated, and are prominent even when LC3-II is not formed. This occurs even with transient and incomplete inhibition of autophagosome biogenesis. This phenomenon is due to LC3-I sequestration to p62 aggregates, which accumulate when autophagy is impaired. This observation questions the reliability of LC3-immunofluorescence assays in cells with compromised autophagy

A DNM2 Centronuclear Myopathy Mutation Reveals a Link between Recycling Endosome Scission and Autophagy.

Autophagy involves engulfment of cytoplasmic contents by double-membraned autophagosomes, which ultimately fuse with lysosomes to enable degradation of their substrates. We recently proposed that the tubular-vesicular recycling endosome membranes were a core platform on which the critical early events of autophagosome formation occurred, including LC3-membrane conjugation to autophagic precursors. Here, we report that the release of autophagosome precursors from recycling endosomes is mediated by DNM2-dependent scission of these tubules. This process is regulated by DNM2 binding to LC3 and is increased by autophagy-inducing stimuli. This scission is defective in cells expressing a centronuclear-myopathy-causing DNM2 mutant. This mutant has an unusual mechanism as it depletes normal-functioning DNM2 from autophagosome formation sites on recycling endosomes by causing increased binding to an alternative plasma membrane partner, ITSN1. This "scission" step is, thus, critical for autophagosome formation, is defective in a human disease, and influences the way we consider how autophagosomes are formed

Transcriptional regulation of Annexin A2 promotes starvation-induced autophagy.

Autophagy is an important degradation pathway, which is induced after starvation, where it buffers nutrient deprivation by recycling macromolecules in organisms from yeast to man. While the classical pathway mediating this response is via mTOR inhibition, there are likely to be additional pathways that support the process. Here, we identify Annexin A2 as an autophagy modulator that regulates autophagosome formation by enabling appropriate ATG9A trafficking from endosomes to autophagosomes via actin. This process is dependent on the Annexin A2 effectors ARP2 and Spire1. Annexin A2 expression increases after starvation in cells in an mTOR-independent fashion. This is mediated via Jun N-terminal kinase activation of c-Jun, which, in turn, enhances the trans-activation of the Annexin A2 promoter. Annexin A2 knockdown abrogates starvation-induced autophagy, while its overexpression induces autophagy. Hence, c-Jun-mediated transcriptional responses support starvation-induced autophagy by regulating Annexin A2 expression levels.Openheimer Memorial TrustThis is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms904