Na Kang,Jinling Tan,Sisi Yan,Leiying Lin,Qiang Gao
Lipophagy in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a microautophagic process in which lipid droplets (LDs) are directly engulfed into the vacuole, despite the fact that multiple core ATG (autophagy related) genes related to general autophagy have been reported to be essential for this process for unknown reasons. In this study, we report new findings about the regulation of lipophagy by analyzing, under different culture conditions, both the engulfment of LDs into the vacuole and the degradation of LD surface proteins. We find that the degradation of LD surface proteins relies on autophagy and can occur independently of lipophagy. Furthermore, glucose restriction can trigger an ATG1-independent lipophagic process, depending on the glucose concentration in the mediums. In summary, we describe an ATG-independent lipophagic process in yeast, such that the overall level of lipophagy in cells is governed by a dynamic balance between the ATG-dependent and -independent lipophagic processes.Abbreviation AP: autophagosome; ATG: autophagy related; CMA: chaperone-mediated autophagy; ESCRT: endosomal sorting complex required for transport; FA: fatty acid; LD: lipid droplet; Ld microdomains: liquid-disordered microdomains; NL: neutral lipid.
Autophagy is a universal cellular process in eukaryotes that plays a critical role in plant growth and stress response. However, the role of autophagy in fruit ripening is largely unknown. Here, we demonstrated that most autophagy-related genes ( ATGs ) were up-regulated during tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L.) fruit ripening. By using mutants of different autophagy pathway genes ( ATG6 , ATG10 , ATG18a ), we revealed that the deficiency of autophagy delayed the ripening of fruit. Compared with wild-type (WT), the production of ethylene was significantly reduced and the accumulation of lycopene was delayed in atg mutants during fruit ripening. We also observed the contents of glucose and fructose were both significantly decreased in atg mutants compared with WT, while the content of organic acids showed the opposite trend. Additionally, the negative regulator of ethylene production, APETALA2a (AP2a), interacted with ATG8 through a specific ATG8-interacting motif (AIM) and could be degraded through the autophagy pathway. These results demonstrate that autophagy plays a critical role in fruit ripening by regulating ethylene production and the accumulation of pigments, sugars and organic acids in tomato.