The role for the intracellular degradation system autophagy in protein synthesis during starvation

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26293060
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: General medical chemistry
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Mizushima Noboru 東京大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (10353434)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: オートファジー / 細胞内分解 / タンパク質合成

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Autophagy is a major intracellular degradation system that is strongly induced upon nutrient starvation, but its physiological importance is not well understood. In this study, we tested the possibility that autophagy provides amino acids to produce proteins required for starvation adaptation in vivo. We found that protein synthesis is indeed impaired in autophagy-deficient livers during starvation. Proteomic analysis of livers from wild-type and autophagy-defective liver under normal and starvation conditions revealed that autophagy deficiency caused more drastic changes in proteome profiles than starvation. Furthermore, the intracellular amino acids levels were not significantly changed in autophagy-deficient livers even under starvation condition. These data suggest that translation attenuation in autophagy-deficient livers is caused not due to a lack of amino acids provided by autophagy but to a defect in liver homeostasis.

Free Research Field

細胞生物学