Atg14: A Key Player in Orchestrating Autophagy

Phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) by a PtdIns 3-kinase is an essential process in autophagy. Atg14, a specific subunit of one of the PtdIns 3-kinase complexes, targets the complex to the probable site of autophagosome formation, thereby, sorting the complex to function specifically in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Keisuke Obara, Yoshinori Ohsumi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2011-01-01
Series:International Journal of Cell Biology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/713435
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Summary:Phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) by a PtdIns 3-kinase is an essential process in autophagy. Atg14, a specific subunit of one of the PtdIns 3-kinase complexes, targets the complex to the probable site of autophagosome formation, thereby, sorting the complex to function specifically in autophagy. The N-terminal half of Atg14, containing coiled-coil domains, is required to form the PtdIns 3-kinase complex and target it to the proper site. The C-terminal half of yeast Atg14 is suggested to be involved in the formation of a normal-sized autophagosome. The C-terminal half of mammalian Atg14 contains the Barkor/Atg14(L) autophagosome-targeting sequence (BATS) domain that preferentially binds to the highly curved membranes containing PtdIns(3)P and is proposed to target the PtdIns 3-kinase complex efficiently to the isolation membrane. Thus, the N- and C-terminal halves of Atg14 are likely to have an essential core function and a regulatory role, respectively.
ISSN:1687-8876
1687-8884