Cited by 2,083Autophagy in Disease and TherapyCellular transport and secretionUbiquitin and proteasome pathways

The machinery of macroautophagy

Open access
Feng, Yuchen, He, Ding, Yao, Zhiyuan, Klionsky, Daniel J·2014·Cell Research

Abstract

Autophagy is a primarily degradative pathway that takes place in all eukaryotic cells. It is used for recycling cytoplasm to generate macromolecular building blocks and energy under stress conditions, to remove superfluous and damaged organelles to adapt to changing nutrient conditions and to maintain cellular homeostasis. In addition, autophagy plays a critical role in cytoprotection by preventing the accumulation of toxic proteins and through its action in various aspects of immunity including the elimination of invasive microbes and its participation in antigen presentation. The most prevalent form of autophagy is macroautophagy, and during this process, the cell forms a double-membrane sequestering compartment termed the phagophore, which matures into an autophagosome. Following delivery to the vacuole or lysosome, the cargo is degraded and the resulting macromolecules are released back into the cytosol for reuse. The past two decades have resulted in a tremendous increase with regard to the molecular studies of autophagy being carried out in yeast and other eukaryotes. Part of the surge in interest in this topic is due to the connection of autophagy with a wide range of human pathophysiologies including cancer, myopathies, diabetes and neurodegenerative disease. However, there are still many aspects of autophagy that remain unclear, including the process of phagophore formation, the regulatory mechanisms that control its induction and the function of most of the autophagy-related proteins. In this review, we focus on macroautophagy, briefly describing the discovery of this process in mammalian cells, discussing the current views concerning the donor membrane that forms the phagophore, and characterizing the autophagy machinery including the available structural information.

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Crossref · 10.1038/cr.2013.168

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  • ATG7 is strictly required for autophagosome formation; it is an E1-like activating enzyme present in ubiquitin-like conjugation systems that promotes both cleavage and lipidation of LC3 and GABARAP.

    “ATG7 is strictly required for autophagosome formation; it is an E1-like activating enzyme present in ubiquitin-like conjugation systems that promotes both cleavage and lipidation of LC3 and GABARAP [43].”

    From A gene toolbox for monitoring autophagy transcription (2021) · cites this paper as [43]

    The Core molecular machinery of autophagosome formation section identifies Atg7 as part of the machinery required for autophagosome formation. The Two Ubl protein conjugation systems section describes ATG7 as an E1-like enzyme that activates LC3/Atg8, whose mammalian homologs include LC3 and GABARAP, in the lipidation pathway. It assigns the cleavage of LC3/Atg8 to ATG4, not ATG7. (LLM, conf=0.90)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • ULK1 is the master regulator of autophagy induction, triggering a cascade of signals through direct phosphorylation of ATG proteins that culminate in autophagosome formation.

    “ULK1 is considered as the master regulator of autophagy induction, triggering a cascade of signals, through direct phosphorylation of ATG proteins, that culminate in autophagosome formation [3, 43].”

    From A gene toolbox for monitoring autophagy transcription (2021) · cites this paper as [43]

  • Autophagy functions as a quality control mechanism, maintaining cellular homeostasis by destroying aggregate-prone proteins and damaged organelles.

    “Indeed, autophagy functions as a quality control mechanism, maintaining cellular homeostasis by destroying aggregate-prone proteins and damaged organelles [45].”

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Klionsky DJ, Baehrecke EH, Brumell JH, et al. A compre- hensive glossary of autophagy-related molecules and pro- cesses (2nd edition). Autophagy 2011; 7:1273-1294.
  2. Bolender RP, Weibel ER. A morphometric study of the re- moval of phenobarbital-induced membranes from hepato- cytes after cessation of threatment. J Cell Biol 1973; 56:746- 761.

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Authors
Feng, Y., He, D., Yao, Z., & Klionsky, D. J.
Affiliations
University of Michigan (US)
Corresponding author
Klionsky, Daniel J
Venue
Cell Research
Published
2013-12-24
Volume
24
Issue
1
Pages
24-41
ISSN
  • 1001-0602 (ISSN-L)
  • 1748-7838
OpenAlex
W2044621729
Cited by
2,083
References
180
Citations by year
2026: 84 · 2025: 130 · 2024: 193 · 2023: 180 · 2022: 238 · 2021: 215 · 2020: 200 · 2019: 185 · 2018: 177 · 2017: 161 · 2016: 161 · 2015: 109 · 2014: 45 · 2013: 3
FWCI
12.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cell Research (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM053396)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Autophagy in Disease and Therapy
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Cellular transport and secretion
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Ubiquitin and proteasome pathways
Keywords
macroautophagy, autophagy machinery, phagophore formation, autophagosomes, autophagy-related proteins, autophagy regulation, lysosomes, cellular homeostasis, cytoprotection, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, yeast autophagy
MeSH terms
Animals, Autophagy, Homeostasis, Humans, Lysosomes, Phagosomes, Pichia, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Vacuoles, Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases

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