Search

Macroautophagy initiates by formation of isolation membranes, but the source of phospholipids for the membrane biogenesis remains elusive. Here, we show that autophagic membranes incorporate newly synthesized phosphatidylcholine, and that CTP:phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase β3 (CCTβ3), an isoform of the rate-limiting enzyme in the Kennedy pathway, plays an essential role. In starved mouse embryo fibroblasts, CCTβ3 is initially recruited to autophagic membranes, but upon prolonged starvation, it concentrates on lipid droplets that are generated from autophagic degradation products. Omegasomes and isolation membranes emanate from around those lipid droplets. Autophagy in prolonged starvation is suppressed by knockdown of CCTβ3 and is enhanced by its overexpression. This CCTβ3-dependent mechanism is also present in U2OS, an osteosarcoma cell line, and autophagy and cell survival in starvation are decreased by CCTβ3 depletion. The results demonstrate that phosphatidylcholine synthesis through CCTβ3 activation on lipid droplets is crucial for sustaining autophagy and long-term cell survival.

Niemann-Pick type C is a storage disease caused by dysfunction of NPC proteins, which transport cholesterol from the lumen of lysosomes to the limiting membrane of that compartment. Using freeze fracture electron microscopy, we show here that the yeast NPC orthologs, Ncr1p and Npc2p, are essential for formation and expansion of raft-like domains in the vacuolar (lysosome) membrane, both in stationary phase and in acute nitrogen starvation. Moreover, the expanded raft-like domains engulf lipid droplets by a microautophagic mechanism. We also found that the multivesicular body pathway plays a crucial role in microautophagy in acute nitrogen starvation by delivering sterol to the vacuole. These data show that NPC proteins promote microautophagy in stationary phase and under nitrogen starvation conditions, likely by increasing sterol in the limiting membrane of the vacuole.

Unlabelled: Autophagy can degrade aggregate-prone proteins, but excessive autophagy can have adverse effects. It would be beneficial if autophagy could be enhanced in a cell type-specific manner, but this has been difficult because the basic mechanism of autophagy is common. In the present study we found that inhibition of Niemann-Pick-type C1-like 1 (NPC1L1) by ezetimibe activates autophagy only in hepatocytes and small intestinal epithelia, but not in other cells. Ezetimibe induced accumulation of free cholesterol in the late endosome/lysosome and increased partitioning of a Ragulator component, LAMTOR1, in rafts. The latter change led to down-regulation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)C1 activity by decreasing mTOR recruitment to the late endosome/lysosome and activated autophagy. A primary effect of ezetimibe was found to be a decrease of free cholesterol in the plasma membrane, because all the results caused by ezetimibe were suppressed by supplementation of cholesterol as a methyl-β-cyclodextrin complex. By enhancing autophagy in human primary hepatocytes with ezetimibe, insoluble mutant α1-antitrypsin Z was reduced significantly., Conclusion: Inhibition of NPC1L1 by ezetimibe activates autophagy in human hepatocytes by modulating cholesterol homeostasis. Ezetimibe may be used to ameliorate liver degeneration in α1-antitrypsin deficiency., (© 2014 by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.)

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase is indispensable for autophagy but it is not well understood how its product, phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns(3)P), participates in the biogenesis of autophagic membranes. Here, by using quick-freezing and freeze-fracture replica labelling, which enables determination of the nanoscale distributions of membrane lipids, we show that PtdIns(3)P in yeast autophagosomes is more abundant in the luminal leaflet (the leaflet facing the closed space between the outer and inner autophagosomal membranes) than in the cytoplasmic leaflet. This distribution is drastically different from that of the mammalian autophagosome in which PtdIns(3)P is confined to the cytoplasmic leaflet. In mutant yeast lacking two cytoplasmic phosphatases, ymr1Δ and sjl3Δ, PtdIns(3)P in the autophagosome is equally abundant in the two membrane leaflets, suggesting that the PtdIns(3)P asymmetry in wild-type yeast is generated by unilateral hydrolysis. The observed differences in PtdIns(3)P distribution suggest that autophagy in yeast and mammals may involve substantially different processes.

Autophagy is a mechanism to digest cells' own components, and its importance in many physiological and pathological processes is being recognized. But the molecular mechanism that regulates autophagy is not understood in detail. In the present study, we found that cholesterol depletion induces macroautophagy. The cellular cholesterol in human fibroblasts was depleted either acutely using 5mM methyl-beta-cyclodextrin or 10-20microg/ml nystatin for 1h, or metabolically by 20microM mevastatin and 200microM mevalonolactone along with 10% lipoprotein-deficient serum for 2-3 days. By any of these protocols, marked increase of LC3-II was detected by immunoblotting and by immunofluorescence microscopy, and the increase was more extensive than that caused by amino acid starvation, i.e., incubation in Hanks' solution for several hours. The induction of autophagic vacuoles by cholesterol depletion was also observed in other cell types, and the LC3-positive membranes were often seen as long tubules, >50microm in length. The increase of LC3-II by methyl-beta-cyclodextrin was suppressed by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitors and was accompanied by dephosphorylation of mammalian target of rapamycin. By electron microscopy, autophagic vacuoles induced by cholesterol depletion were indistinguishable from those seen after amino acid starvation. These results demonstrate that a decrease in cholesterol activates autophagy by a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-dependent mechanism.

PGAM5, a mitochondrial protein phosphatase that is genetically and biochemically linked to PINK1, facilitates mitochondrial division by dephosphorylating the mitochondrial fission factor Drp1. At the onset of mitophagy, PGAM5 is cleaved by PARL, a rhomboid protease that degrades PINK1 in healthy cells, and the cleaved form facilitates the engulfment of damaged mitochondria by autophagosomes by dephosphorylating the mitophagy receptor FUNDC1. Here, we show that the function and localization of PGAM5 are regulated by syntaxin 17 (Stx17), a mitochondria‐associated membrane/mitochondria protein implicated in mitochondrial dynamics in fed cells and autophagy in starved cells. In healthy cells, loss of Stx17 causes PGAM5 aggregation within mitochondria and thereby failure of the dephosphorylation of Drp1, leading to mitochondrial elongation. In Parkin‐mediated mitophagy, Stx17 is prerequisite for PGAM5 to interact with FUNDC1. Our results reveal that the Stx17‐PGAM5 axis plays pivotal roles in mitochondrial division and PINK1/Parkin‐mediated mitophagy. Synopsis: Mitochondrial phosphatase PGAM5 has been shown to regulate mitophagy by dephosphorylating the mitophagy receptor FUNDC1. New data show that syntaxin 17 associates with PGAM5 and regulates its localization and Drp1 and FUNDC1 activation during normal and mitophagic division, respectively. Syntaxin 17 binds PGAM5 and regulates its localization and activity.Syntaxin 17 promotes Drp1 activity by facilitating its PGAM5‐mediated dephosphorylation.Syntaxin 17 is required for the association of PGAM5 with the mitophagy receptor FUNDC1 in mitophagy.Syntaxin 17 and PGAM5 maintain mitochondrial architecture in Drosophila. Syntaxin 17 supports PGAM5‐mediated dephosphorylation and activation of fission factor Drp1 in healthy cells by regulating PGAM5 localization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]