UXT oligomerization is essential for its role as an autophagy adaptor

Summary: SQSTM1/p62 serves as an autophagy receptor that binds to ubiquitinated misfolded proteins and delivers them to the phagophores for removal. This function can be augmented by autophagy adaptors, such as UXT. Here, by in silico structural homology modeling, we demonstrated that UXT can potent...

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Main Authors: Min Ji Yoon, Jugeon Park, MinHyeong Lee, Jiyeon Ohk, Tae Su Choi, Eun Jung Choi, Hosung Jung, Chungho Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-03-01
Series:iScience
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004225002731
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Summary:Summary: SQSTM1/p62 serves as an autophagy receptor that binds to ubiquitinated misfolded proteins and delivers them to the phagophores for removal. This function can be augmented by autophagy adaptors, such as UXT. Here, by in silico structural homology modeling, we demonstrated that UXT can potentially form a hexameric structure to bind to misfolded proteins. Importantly, the UXT hexamer can assemble into a high-order oligomer via β hairpins positioned outside of each hexamer, facilitating the formation and efficient removal of protein aggregates. Consistently, the high-order oligomer of UXT was found to be essential for inducing the efficient clearance of SOD1(A4V) aggregates, in both in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our research emphasizes the crucial importance of UXT oligomerization in its role as an autophagy adaptor and explains why the structurally and functionally similar prefoldin, which lacks such high-order oligomerization capacity, is employed for the refolding of individual misfolded proteins, but not autophagy.
ISSN:2589-0042