Advances in Autophagy Regulatory Mechanisms
Strathclyde Institute for Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland G4 0RE, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Anne Hamacher-Brady
Cells 2016, 5(2), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells5020024
Received: 16 January 2016 / Revised: 20 April 2016 / Accepted: 5 May 2016 / Published: 13 May 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Autophagy)
Autophagy plays a critical role in cell metabolism by degrading and recycling internal components when challenged with limited nutrients. This fundamental and conserved mechanism is based on a membrane trafficking pathway in which nascent autophagosomes engulf cytoplasmic cargo to form vesicles that transport their content to the lysosome for degradation. Based on this simple scheme, autophagy modulates cellular metabolism and cytoplasmic quality control to influence an unexpectedly wide range of normal mammalian physiology and pathophysiology. In this review, we summarise recent advancements in three broad areas of autophagy regulation. We discuss current models on how autophagosomes are initiated from endogenous membranes. We detail how the uncoordinated 51-like kinase (ULK) complex becomes activated downstream of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (MTORC1). Finally, we summarise the upstream signalling mechanisms that can sense amino acid availability leading to activation of MTORC1.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
autophagy; amino acids; ULK; MTOR; autophagosome; isolation membrane; Beclin 1; VPS34; ATG14L
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Gallagher, L.E.; Williamson, L.E.; Chan, E.Y.W. Advances in Autophagy Regulatory Mechanisms. Cells 2016, 5, 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells5020024
AMA Style
Gallagher LE, Williamson LE, Chan EYW. Advances in Autophagy Regulatory Mechanisms. Cells. 2016; 5(2):24. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells5020024
Chicago/Turabian StyleGallagher, Laura E.; Williamson, Leon E.; Chan, Edmond Y.W. 2016. "Advances in Autophagy Regulatory Mechanisms" Cells 5, no. 2: 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells5020024
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit