AUTOPHAGY-RELATED11 plays a critical role in general autophagy- and senescence-induced mitophagy in Arabidopsis

An siRNA screen for ATG protein depletion reveals the extent of the unconventional functions of the autophagy proteome in virus replication

Autophagy is a catabolic process regulated by the orchestrated action of the autophagy-related (ATG) proteins. Recent work indicates that some of the ATG proteins also have autophagy-independent roles. Using an unbiased siRNA screen approach, we explored the extent of these unconventional functions of ATG proteins. We determined the effects of the depletion of each ATG proteome component on the replication of six different viruses. Our screen reveals that up to 36% of the ATG proteins significantly alter the replication of at least one virus in an unconventional fashion. Detailed analysis of two candidates revealed an undocumented role for ATG13 and FIP200 in picornavirus replication that is independent of their function in autophagy as part of the ULK complex. The high numbers of unveiled ATG gene-specific and pathogen-specific functions of the ATG proteins calls for caution in the interpretation of data, which rely solely on the depletion of a single ATG protein to specifically ablate autophagy.

Negative Regulation of Autophagy by Sulfide Is Independent of Reactive Oxygen Species

Accumulating experimental evidence in mammalian, and recently plant, systems has led to a change in our understanding of the role played by hydrogen sulfide in life processes. In plants, hydrogen sulfide mitigates stress and regulates important plant processes such as photosynthesis, stomatal movement, and autophagy, although the underlying mechanism is not well known. In this study, we provide new experimental evidence that, together with our previous findings, demonstrates the role of hydrogen sulfide in regulating autophagy. We used green fluorescent protein fluorescence associated with autophagic bodies and immunoblot analysis of the ATG8 protein to show that sulfide (and no other molecules such as sulfur-containing molecules or ammonium) was able to inhibit the autophagy induced in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) roots under nitrogen deprivation. Our results showed that sulfide was unable to scavenge reactive oxygen species generated by nitrogen limitation, in contrast to well-established reducers. In addition, reducers were unable to inhibit the accumulation of autophagic bodies and ATG8 protein forms to the same extent as sulfide. Therefore, we conclude that sulfide represses autophagy via a mechanism that is independent of redox conditions.

The Proteasome Stress Regulon Is Controlled by a Pair of NAC Transcription Factors in Arabidopsis

Proteotoxic stress, which is generated by the accumulation of unfolded or aberrant proteins due to environmental or cellular perturbations, can be mitigated by several mechanisms, including activation of the unfolded protein response and coordinated increases in protein chaperones and activities that direct proteolysis, such as the 26S proteasome. Using RNA-seq analyses combined with chemical inhibitors or mutants that induce proteotoxic stress by impairing 26S proteasome capacity, we defined the transcriptional network that responds to this stress in Arabidopsis thaliana This network includes genes encoding core and assembly factors needed to build the complete 26S particle, alternative proteasome capping factors, enzymes involved in protein ubiquitylation/deubiquitylation and cellular detoxification, protein chaperones, autophagy components, and various transcriptional regulators. Many loci in this proteasome-stress regulon contain a consensus cis-element upstream of the transcription start site, which was previously identified as a binding site for the NAM/ATAF1/CUC2 78 (NAC78) transcription factor. Double mutants disrupting NAC78 and its closest relative NAC53 are compromised in the activation of this regulon and notably are strongly hypersensitive to the proteasome inhibitors MG132 and bortezomib. Given that NAC53 and NAC78 homo- and heterodimerize, we propose that they work as a pair in activating the expression of numerous factors that help plants survive proteotoxic stress and thus play a central regulatory role in maintaining protein homeostasis.

hfAIM: A reliable bioinformatics approach for in silico genome-wide identification of autophagy-associated Atg8-interacting motifs in various organisms

Most of the proteins that are specifically turned over by selective autophagy are recognized by the presence of short Atg8 interacting motifs (AIMs) that facilitate their association with the autophagy apparatus. Such AIMs can be identified by bioinformatics methods based on their defined degenerate consensus F/W/Y-X-X-L/I/V sequences in which X represents any amino acid. Achieving reliability and/or fidelity of the prediction of such AIMs on a genome-wide scale represents a major challenge. Here, we present a bioinformatics approach, high fidelity AIM (hfAIM), which uses additional sequence requirements-the presence of acidic amino acids and the absence of positively charged amino acids in certain positions-to reliably identify AIMs in proteins. We demonstrate that the use of the hfAIM method allows for in silico high fidelity prediction of AIMs in AIM-containing proteins (ACPs) on a genome-wide scale in various organisms. Furthermore, by using hfAIM to identify putative AIMs in the Arabidopsis proteome, we illustrate a potential contribution of selective autophagy to various biological processes. More specifically, we identified 9 peroxisomal PEX proteins that contain hfAIM motifs, among which AtPEX1, AtPEX6 and AtPEX10 possess evolutionary-conserved AIMs. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) results verified that AtPEX6 and AtPEX10 indeed interact with Atg8 in planta. In addition, we show that mutations occurring within or nearby hfAIMs in PEX1, PEX6 and PEX10 caused defects in the growth and development of various organisms. Taken together, the above results suggest that the hfAIM tool can be used to effectively perform genome-wide in silico screens of proteins that are potentially regulated by selective autophagy. The hfAIM system is a web tool that can be accessed at link: http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/hfAIM/.

Regulation of Autophagy By Signaling Through the Atg1/ULK1 Complex

Autophagy is an intracellular degradation pathway highly conserved in eukaryotic species. It is characterized by selective or bulk trafficking of cytosolic structures-ranging from single proteins to cell organelles-to the vacuole or a lysosome, in which the autophagic cargo is degraded. Autophagy fulfils a large set of roles, including nutrient mobilization in starvation conditions, clearance of protein aggregates and host defence against intracellular pathogens. Not surprisingly, autophagy has been linked to several human diseases, among them neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. Autophagy is coordinated by the action of the Atg1/ULK1 kinase, which is the target of several important stress signaling cascades. In this review, we will discuss the available information on both upstream regulation and downstream effectors of Atg1/ULK1, with special focus on reported and proposed kinase substrates.

Autophagy in Plants--What's New on the Menu?

Autophagy is a major cellular degradation pathway in eukaryotes. Recent studies have revealed the importance of autophagy in many aspects of plant life, including seedling establishment, plant development, stress resistance, metabolism, and reproduction. This is manifested by the dual ability of autophagy to execute bulk degradation under severe environmental conditions, while simultaneously to be highly selective in targeting specific compartments and protein complexes to regulate key cellular processes, even during favorable growth conditions. Delivery of cellular components to the vacuole enables their recycling, affecting the plant metabolome, especially under stress. Recent research in Arabidopsis has further unveiled fundamental mechanistic aspects in autophagy which may have relevance in non-plant systems. We review the most recent discoveries concerning autophagy in plants, touching upon all these aspects.

Formation of Mitochondrial Outer Membrane Derived Protrusions and Vesicles in Arabidopsis thaliana

Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that have inner and outer membranes. In plants, the inner membrane has been well studied but relatively little is known about the outer membrane. Here we report that Arabidopsis cells have mitochondrial outer membrane-derived structures, some of which protrude from the main body of mitochondria (mitochondrial outer-membrane protrusions; MOPs), while others form vesicle-like structures without a matrix marker. The latter vesicle-like structures are similar to some mammalian MDVs (mitochondrial-derived vesicles). Live imaging demonstrated that a plant MDV budded off from the tip of a MOP. MDVs were also observed in the drp3a drp3b double mutant, indicating that they could be formed without the mitochondrial fission factors DRP3A and DRP3B. Double staining studies showed that the MDVs were not peroxisomes, endosomes, Golgi apparatus or trans-Golgi network (TGN). The numbers of MDVs and MOPs increased in senescent leaves and after dark treatment. Together, these results suggest that MDVs and MOPs are related to leaf senescence.

Origin of the Autophagosomal Membrane in Plants

During autophagy, cargo molecules destined for degradation are sequestrated into a double-membrane structure called autophagosome, which subsequently fuses with the vacuole. An isolation membrane structure (also called the phagophore) initiates from the platform termed PAS (phagophore assembly site or preautophagosomal structure), which then elongates and expands to become the completed autophagosome. The origin of the membrane for autophagosome formation has been extensively investigated but remains an enigma in the field of autophagy. In yeast and mammalian cells multiple membrane sources have been suggested to contribute to autophagosome formation at different steps, from initiation through expansion and maturation. Recent studies in plants have provided a significant advance in our understanding of the conserved role of autophagy and the underlying mechanism for autophagosome formation. Here, we will discuss and evaluate these new findings on autophagosome formation in plants, with a particular focus on the origin of plant autophagosomal membranes.

Characterization of an Autophagy-Related Gene MdATG8i from Apple

Nutrient deficiencies restrict apple (Malus sp.) tree growth and productivity in Northwest China. The process of autophagy, a conserved degradation pathway in eukaryotic cells, has important roles in nutrient-recycling and helps improve plant performance during periods of nutrient-starvation. Little is known about the functioning of autophagy-related genes (ATGs) in apple. In this study, one of the ATG8 gene family members MdATG8i was isolated from Malus domestica. MdATG8i has conserved putative tubulin binding sites and ATG7 interaction domains. A 1865-bp promoter region cloned from apple genome DNA was predicated to have cis-regulatory elements responsive to light, environmental stresses, and hormones. MdATG8i transcriptions were induced in response to leaf senescence, nitrogen depletion, and oxidative stress. At cellular level, MdATG8i protein was expressed in the nucleus and cytoplasm of onion epidermal cells. Yeast two-hybrid tests showed that MdATG8i could interact with MdATG7a and MdATG7b. In Arabidopsis, its heterologous expression was associated with enhanced vegetative growth, leaf senescence, and tolerance to nitrogen- and carbon-starvation. MdATG8i-overexpressing "Orin" apple callus lines also displayed improved tolerance to nutrient-limited conditions. Our results demonstrate that MdATG8i protein could function in autophagy in a conserved way, as a positive regulator in the response to nutrient-starvation.

Endocytic and autophagic pathways crosstalk in plants

The vacuole is the central site for both storage and metabolism in plant cells and mediates multiple cellular events during plant development and growth. Cargo proteins are usually sequestered into membrane-bound organelles and delivered into the vacuole upon membrane fusion. Two major organelles are responsible for the recognition and transport of cargos targeted to the vacuole: the single-membrane multivesicular body (MVB) or prevacuolar compartment (PVC) and the double-membrane autophagosome. Here, we will highlight recent discoveries about MVB/PVC-mediated and autophagosome-mediated protein trafficking and degradation, and will pay special attention to a possible interplay between the endocytic and autophagic pathways in regulating vacuolar degradation in plants.

New Insight into the Mechanism and Function of Autophagy in Plant Cells

Autophagy is a degradation pathway that is conserved throughout eukaryotic organisms and plays important roles in the tolerance of abiotic and biotic stresses. It functions as a housekeeping process to remove unwanted cell components under normal conditions, and is induced during stress and senescence to break down damaged cellular contents and to recycle materials. The target components are engulfed into specialized transport structures termed autophagosomes and are subsequently delivered to the vacuole for degradation. Here, we review milestones in the study of autophagy in plants, discuss recent advances in our understanding of the mechanism and physiological roles of plant autophagy, and highlight potential future directions of research.

Atg1 family kinases in autophagy initiation

Autophagosome formation, a landmark event in autophagy, is accomplished by the concerted actions of Atg proteins. Among all Atg proteins, Atg1 kinase in yeast and its counterpart in higher eukaryotes, ULK1 kinase, function as the most upstream factor in this process and mediate autophagy initiation. In this review, we summarize current knowledge of the structure, molecular function, and regulation of Atg1 family kinases in the initiation of autophagy.

Autophagic recycling plays a central role in maize nitrogen remobilization

Autophagy is a primary route for nutrient recycling in plants by which superfluous or damaged cytoplasmic material and organelles are encapsulated and delivered to the vacuole for breakdown. Central to autophagy is a conjugation pathway that attaches AUTOPHAGY-RELATED8 (ATG8) to phosphatidylethanolamine, which then coats emerging autophagic membranes and helps with cargo recruitment, vesicle enclosure, and subsequent vesicle docking with the tonoplast. A key component in ATG8 function is ATG12, which promotes lipidation upon its attachment to ATG5. Here, we fully defined the maize (Zea mays) ATG system transcriptionally and characterized it genetically through atg12 mutants that block ATG8 modification. atg12 plants have compromised autophagic transport as determined by localization of a YFP-ATG8 reporter and its vacuolar cleavage during nitrogen or fixed-carbon starvation. Phenotypic analyses showed that atg12 plants are phenotypically normal and fertile when grown under nutrient-rich conditions. However, when nitrogen-starved, seedling growth is severely arrested, and as the plants mature, they show enhanced leaf senescence and stunted ear development. Nitrogen partitioning studies revealed that remobilization is impaired in atg12 plants, which significantly decreases seed yield and nitrogen-harvest index. Together, our studies demonstrate that autophagy, while nonessential, becomes critical during nitrogen stress and severely impacts maize productivity under suboptimal field conditions.

Establishment of monitoring methods for autophagy in rice reveals autophagic recycling of chloroplasts and root plastids during energy limitation

Autophagy is an intracellular process leading to vacuolar or lysosomal degradation of cytoplasmic components in eukaryotes. Establishment of proper methods to monitor autophagy was a key step in uncovering its role in organisms, such as yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), mammals, and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), in which chloroplastic proteins were found to be recycled by autophagy. Chloroplast recycling has been predicted to function in nutrient remobilization for growing organs or grain filling in cereal crops. Here, to develop our understanding of autophagy in cereals, we established monitoring methods for chloroplast autophagy in rice (Oryza sativa). We generated transgenic rice-expressing fluorescent protein (FP) OsAuTophaGy8 (OsATG8) fusions as autophagy markers. FP-ATG8 signals were delivered into the vacuolar lumen in living cells of roots and leaves mainly as vesicles corresponding to autophagic bodies. This phenomenon was not observed upon the addition of wortmannin, an inhibitor of autophagy, or in an ATG7 knockout mutant. Markers for the chloroplast stroma, stromal FP, and FP-labeled Rubisco were delivered by a type of autophagic body called the Rubisco-containing body (RCB) in the same manner. RCB production in excised leaves was suppressed by supply of external sucrose or light. The release of free FP caused by autophagy-dependent breakdown of FP-labeled Rubisco was induced during accelerated senescence in individually darkened leaves. In roots, nongreen plastids underwent both RCB-mediated and entire organelle types of autophagy. Therefore, our newly developed methods to monitor autophagy directly showed autophagic degradation of leaf chloroplasts and root plastids in rice plants and its induction during energy limitation.

The endosomal protein CHARGED MULTIVESICULAR BODY PROTEIN1 regulates the autophagic turnover of plastids in Arabidopsis

Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport (ESCRT)-III proteins mediate membrane remodeling and the release of endosomal intraluminal vesicles into multivesicular bodies. Here, we show that the ESCRT-III subunit paralogs CHARGED MULTIVESICULAR BODY PROTEIN1 (CHMP1A) and CHMP1B are required for autophagic degradation of plastid proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana. Similar to autophagy mutants, chmp1a chmp1b (chmp1) plants hyperaccumulated plastid components, including proteins involved in plastid division. The autophagy machinery directed the release of bodies containing plastid material into the cytoplasm, whereas CHMP1A and B were required for delivery of these bodies to the vacuole. Autophagy was upregulated in chmp1 as indicated by an increase in vacuolar green fluorescent protein (GFP) cleavage from the autophagic reporter GFP-ATG8. However, autophagic degradation of the stromal cargo RECA-GFP was drastically reduced in the chmp1 plants upon starvation, suggesting that CHMP1 mediates the efficient delivery of autophagic plastid cargo to the vacuole. Consistent with the compromised degradation of plastid proteins, chmp1 plastids show severe morphological defects and aberrant division. We propose that CHMP1 plays a direct role in the autophagic turnover of plastid constituents.

Perception of Arabidopsis AtPep peptides, but not bacterial elicitors, accelerates starvation-induced senescence

Members of the AtPep group of Arabidopsis endogenous peptides have frequently been reported to induce pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and to increase resistance to diverse pathogens by amplifying the innate immune response. Here, we made the surprising observation that dark-induced leaf senescence was accelerated by the presence of Peps. Adult leaves as well as leaf discs of Col-0 wild type plants showed a Pep-triggered early onset of chlorophyll breakdown and leaf yellowing whereas pepr1 pepr2 double mutant plants were insensitive. In addition, this response was dependent on ethylene signaling and inhibited by the addition of cytokinins. Notably, addition of the bacterial elicitors flg22 or elf18, both potent inducers of PTI, did not provoke an early onset of leaf senescence. Continuous darkness leads to energy deprivation and starvation and therewith promotes leaf senescence. We found that continuous darkness also strongly induced PROPEP3 transcription. Moreover, Pep-perception led to a rapid induction of PAO, APG7, and APG8a, genes indispensable for chlorophyll degradation as well as autophagy, respectively, and all three hallmarks of starvation and senescence. Notably, addition of sucrose as a source of energy inhibited the Pep-triggered early onset of senescence. In conclusion, we report that Pep-perception accelerates dark/starvation-induced senescence via an early induction of chlorophyll degradation and autophagy. This represents a novel and unique characteristic of PEPR signaling, unrelated to PTI.

Protein maturation and proteolysis in plant plastids, mitochondria, and peroxisomes

Plastids, mitochondria, and peroxisomes are key organelles with dynamic proteomes in photosynthetic eukaryotes. Their biogenesis and activity must be coordinated and require intraorganellar protein maturation, degradation, and recycling. The three organelles together are predicted to contain ∼200 presequence peptidases, proteases, aminopeptidases, and specific protease chaperones/adaptors, but the substrates and substrate selection mechanisms are poorly understood. Similarly, lifetime determinants of organellar proteins, such as N-end degrons and tagging systems, have not been identified, but the substrate recognition mechanisms likely share similarities between organelles. Novel degradomics tools for systematic analysis of protein lifetime and proteolysis could define such protease-substrate relationships, degrons, and protein lifetime. Intraorganellar proteolysis is complemented by autophagy of whole organelles or selected organellar content, as well as by cytosolic protein ubiquitination and degradation by the proteasome. This review summarizes (putative) plant organellar protease functions and substrate-protease relationships. Examples illustrate key proteolytic events.

Shredding the signal: targeting peptide degradation in mitochondria and chloroplasts

The biogenesis and functionality of mitochondria and chloroplasts depend on the constant turnover of their proteins. The majority of mitochondrial and chloroplastic proteins are imported as precursors via their N-terminal targeting peptides. After import, the targeting peptides are cleaved off and degraded. Recent work has elucidated a pathway involved in the degradation of targeting peptides in mitochondria and chloroplasts, with two proteolytic components: the presequence protease (PreP) and the organellar oligopeptidase (OOP). PreP and OOP are specialized in degrading peptides of different lengths, with the substrate restriction being dictated by the structure of their proteolytic cavities. The importance of the intraorganellar peptide degradation is highlighted by the fact that elimination of both oligopeptidases affects growth and development of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Potential function for the Huntingtin protein as a scaffold for selective autophagy

Although dominant gain-of-function triplet repeat expansions in the Huntingtin (HTT) gene are the underlying cause of Huntington disease (HD), understanding the normal functions of nonmutant HTT protein has remained a challenge. We report here findings that suggest that HTT plays a significant role in selective autophagy. Loss of HTT function in Drosophila disrupts starvation-induced autophagy in larvae and conditional knockout of HTT in the mouse CNS causes characteristic cellular hallmarks of disrupted autophagy, including an accumulation of striatal p62/SQSTM1 over time. We observe that specific domains of HTT have structural similarities to yeast Atg proteins that function in selective autophagy, and in particular that the C-terminal domain of HTT shares structural similarity to yeast Atg11, an autophagic scaffold protein. To explore possible functional similarity between HTT and Atg11, we investigated whether the C-terminal domain of HTT interacts with mammalian counterparts of yeast Atg11-interacting proteins. Strikingly, this domain of HTT coimmunoprecipitates with several key Atg11 interactors, including the Atg1/Unc-51-like autophagy activating kinase 1 kinase complex, autophagic receptor proteins, and mammalian Atg8 homologs. Mutation of a phylogenetically conserved WXXL domain in a C-terminal HTT fragment reduces coprecipitation with mammalian Atg8 homolog GABARAPL1, suggesting a direct interaction. Collectively, these data support a possible central role for HTT as an Atg11-like scaffold protein. These findings have relevance to both mechanisms of disease pathogenesis and to therapeutic intervention strategies that reduce levels of both mutant and normal HTT.

Arabidopsis ATG8-INTERACTING PROTEIN1 is involved in autophagy-dependent vesicular trafficking of plastid proteins to the vacuole

Selective autophagy has been extensively studied in various organisms, but knowledge regarding its functions in plants, particularly in organelle turnover, is limited. We have recently discovered ATG8-INTERACTING PROTEIN1 (ATI1) from Arabidopsis thaliana and showed that following carbon starvation it is localized on endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated bodies that are subsequently transported to the vacuole. Here, we show that following carbon starvation ATI1 is also located on bodies associating with plastids, which are distinct from the ER ATI bodies and are detected mainly in senescing cells that exhibit plastid degradation. Additionally, these plastid-localized bodies contain a stroma protein marker as cargo and were observed budding and detaching from plastids. ATI1 interacts with plastid-localized proteins and was further shown to be required for the turnover of one of them, as a representative. ATI1 on the plastid bodies also interacts with ATG8f, which apparently leads to the targeting of the plastid bodies to the vacuole by a process that requires functional autophagy. Finally, we show that ATI1 is involved in Arabidopsis salt stress tolerance. Taken together, our results implicate ATI1 in autophagic plastid-to-vacuole trafficking through its ability to interact with both plastid proteins and ATG8 of the core autophagy machinery.

Methods for analysis of autophagy in plants

The plant vacuole is a major site for the breakdown and recycling of cellular macromolecules. Cytoplasmic components destined for degradation are delivered to the vacuole in vesicles termed autophagosomes, and the breakdown products are transported back into the cytosol for reuse, with the overall process termed autophagy. In plants, autophagy is required for nutrient remobilization and recycling during senescence and nutrient deficiency, for clearance of protein aggregates and damaged organelles during environmental stress, for pathogen defense, and for general cellular maintenance under normal growth conditions. There is growing interest in autophagy in plants due to the wide range of processes in which it functions. While much of the work thus far has used the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, autophagy is now under investigation in a number of other plants, particularly in economically important crop species. Here, I discuss methods for assessing autophagy activity in plant cells. Microscopic and biochemical assays are described, along with ways to distinguish the steady-state number of autophagosomes from flux through the autophagic pathway. Some deficiencies still exist in plant autophagy analysis, and there is a particular need for more accurate methods of quantifying autophagic flux in plants.

Degradation of organelles or specific organelle components via selective autophagy in plant cells

Macroautophagy (hereafter referred to as autophagy) is a cellular mechanism dedicated to the degradation and recycling of unnecessary cytosolic components by their removal to the lytic compartment of the cell (the vacuole in plants). Autophagy is generally induced by stresses causing energy deprivation and its operation occurs by special vesicles, termed autophagosomes. Autophagy also operates in a selective manner, recycling specific components, such as organelles, protein aggregates or even specific proteins, and selective autophagy is implicated in both cellular housekeeping and response to stresses. In plants, selective autophagy has recently been shown to degrade mitochondria, plastids and peroxisomes, or organelle components such as the endoplasmic-reticulum (ER) membrane and chloroplast-derived proteins such as Rubisco. This ability places selective-autophagy as a major factor in cellular steady-state maintenance, both under stress and favorable environmental conditions. Here we review the recent advances documented in plants for this cellular process and further discuss its impact on plant physiology.

A revised assay for monitoring autophagic flux in Arabidopsis thaliana reveals involvement of AUTOPHAGY-RELATED9 in autophagy

Autophagy targets cytoplasmic cargo to a lytic compartment for degradation. Autophagy-related (Atg) proteins, including the transmembrane protein Atg9, are involved in different steps of autophagy in yeast and mammalian cells. Functional classification of core Atg proteins in plants has not been clearly confirmed, partly because of the limited availability of reliable assays for monitoring autophagic flux. By using proUBQ10-GFP-ATG8a as an autophagic marker, we showed that autophagic flux is reduced but not completely compromised in Arabidopsis thaliana atg9 mutants. In contrast, we confirmed full inhibition of autophagic flux in atg7 and that the difference in autophagy was consistent with the differences in mutant phenotypes such as hypersensitivity to nutrient stress and selective autophagy. Autophagic flux is also reduced by an inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol kinase. Our data indicated that atg9 is phenotypically distinct from atg7 and atg2 in Arabidopsis, and we proposed that ATG9 and phosphatidylinositol kinase activity contribute to efficient autophagy in Arabidopsis.

Selective autophagy of non-ubiquitylated targets in plants: looking for cognate receptor/adaptor proteins

Cellular homeostasis is essential for the physiology of eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotic cells, including plant cells, utilize two main pathways to adjust the level of cytoplasmic components, namely the proteasomal and the lysosomal/vacuolar pathways. Macroautophagy is a lysosomal/vacuolar pathway which, until recently, was thought to be non-specific and a bulk degradation process. However, selective autophagy which can be activated in the cell under various physiological conditions, involves the specific degradation of defined macromolecules or organelles by a conserved molecular mechanism. For this process to be efficient, the mechanisms underlying the recognition and selection of the cargo to be engulfed by the double membrane autophagosome are critical, and not yet well understood. Ubiquitin (poly-ubiquitin) conjugation to the target appears to be a conserved ligand mechanism in many types of selective autophagy, and defined receptors/adaptors recognizing and regulating the autophagosomal capture of the ubiquitylated target have been characterized. However, non-proteinaceous and non-ubiquitylated cargoes are also selectively degraded by this pathway. This ubiquitin-independent selective autophagic pathway also involves receptor and/or adaptor proteins linking the cargo to the autophagic machinery. Some of these receptor/adaptor proteins including accessory autophagy-related (Atg) and non-Atg proteins have been described in yeast and animal cells but not yet in plants. In this review we discuss the ubiquitin-independent cargo selection mechanisms in selective autophagy degradation of organelles and macromolecules and speculate on potential plant receptor/adaptor proteins.

Functions of autophagy in plant carbon and nitrogen metabolism

Carbon and nitrogen are essential components for plant growth. Although models of plant carbon and nitrogen metabolisms have long been established, certain gaps remain unfilled, such as how plants are able to maintain a flexible nocturnal starch turnover capacity over various light cycles, or how nitrogen remobilization is achieved during the reproductive growth stage. Recent advances in plant autophagy have shed light on such questions. Not only does autophagy contribute to starch degradation at night, but it participates in the degradation of chloroplast proteins and even chloroplasts after prolonged carbon starvation, thus help maintain the free amino acid pool and provide substrate for respiration. The induction of autophagy under these conditions may involve transcriptional regulation. Large-scale transcriptome analyses revealed that ATG8e belongs to a core carbon signaling response shared by Arabidopsis accessions, and the transcription of Arabidopsis ATG7 is tightly co-regulated with genes functioning in chlorophyll degradation and leaf senescence. In the reproductive phase, autophagy is essential for bulk degradation of leaf proteins, thus contributes to nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) both under normal and low-nitrogen conditions.