Early endosomes and endosomal coatomer are required for autophagy

M. Razi, Edmond Y. Chan, Sharon A. Tooze

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

215 Citations (Scopus)
211 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Autophagy, an intracellular degradative pathway, maintains cell homeostasis under normal and stress conditions. Nascent double-membrane autophagosomes sequester and enclose cytosolic components and organelles, and subsequently fuse with the endosomal pathway allowing content degradation. Autophagy requires fusion of autophagosomes with late endosomes, but it is not known if fusion with early endosomes is essential. We show that fusion of AVs with functional early endosomes is required for autophagy. Inhibition of early endosome function by loss of COPI subunits (β′, β, or α) results in accumulation of autophagosomes, but not an increased autophagic flux. COPI is required for ER-Golgi transport and early endosome maturation. Although loss of COPI results in the fragmentation of the Golgi, this does not induce the formation of autophagosomes. Loss of COPI causes defects in early endosome function, as both transferrin recycling and EGF internalization and degradation are impaired, and this loss of function causes an inhibition of autophagy, an accumulation of p62/SQSTM-1, and ubiquitinated proteins in autophagosomes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)305-321
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Cell Biology
Volume185
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Apr 2009

Keywords

  • autophagy
  • cell homeostasis
  • Nascent double-membrane autophagosomes
  • autophagosomes
  • endosomes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Early endosomes and endosomal coatomer are required for autophagy'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this