Mitochondrial caspase keeps autophagy in flux

Mitochondrial caspase keeps autophagy in flux

M any cellular stresses, including starvation, induce cells to up-regulate the process of auto-phagy, in which cytoplasmic content is engulfed into autophagosomes and delivered to lysosomes for degradation. Auto-phagy can promote cell homeostasis and survival by removing damaged proteins and organelles and recycling their breakdown products to enhance cell metabolism. On the other hand, autopha...

Autophagy: Close Contact Keeps Out the Uninvited

In selective autophagy, autophagosomes sequester specific targets to be degraded in lysosomes/vacuoles. A new study now provides critical insights into the mechanism by which the autophagosomal membrane closely sticks to the target to avoid incorporating material that should not be degraded.

Histone methylation keeps the brakes on autophagy.

A caspase homolog keeps CED-3 in check.

Apoptosis is a highly conserved form of cell death that is essential for controlling cell numbers throughout the lifetime of an organism. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the final step in the apoptotic cascade is activation of the death-inducing protease CED-3. Until now, no direct negative regulators of CED-3 had been identified, so the mechanism for maintaining a proper life-death balance was uncl...

Rad53 keeps watch over mitochondrial DNA

E dgerton-Morgan and Oakley reveal that ␥-tubulin promotes cells' entry into S phase by controlling the localization of a key cell cycle regulator. ␥-Tubulin is best known for nucleating microtubules at micro-tubule-organizing centers such as centrosomes or fungal spindle pole bodies, but ␥-tubulin also regulates the cell cycle. Aspergillus nidulans strains expressing the ␥-tubulin mutant mipA-...