Molecular mechanisms of organelle biogenesis using autophagosome formation as a model system

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25291040
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cell biology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Kuninori 東京大学, 新領域創成科学研究科, 准教授 (20373194)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: オートファジー / タンパク質分解 / オルガネラ分解 / 出芽酵母 / オルガネラ / Atgタンパク質 / 生体膜

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Autophagy is a highly conserved cellular recycling process involved in degradation of eukaryotic cellular components. During autophagy, macromolecules and organelles are sequestered into the double-membrane autophagosome and degraded in the vacuole/lysosome. Atg3 is an E2-like enzyme that catalyzes the conjugation reaction between Atg8 and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). We constructed functional GFP-tagged Atg3 (Atg3-GFP) by inserting the GFP portion immediately after the handle region of Atg3. During autophagy, Atg3-GFP transiently formed a single dot per cell on the vacuolar membrane. This Atg3-GFP dot colocalized with 2×mCherry-tagged Atg8, demonstrating that Atg3 is localized to autophagic structures. Furthermore, we found that Atg3-GFP is localized to the IM by fine-localization analysis. The localization of Atg3 suggests that Atg3 plays an important role in autophagosome formation at the IM.

Free Research Field

細胞生物学