In the process of autophagy, a ubiquitin-like molecule, LC3/Atg8, is conjugated to phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and associates with forming autophagosomes. In mammalian cells, the existence of multiple Atg8 homologues (referred to as LC3 paralogues) has hampered genetic analysis of the lipidation of LC3 paralogues. Here, we show that overexpression of an inactive mutant of Atg4B, a protease th...

Autophagy is a conserved cellular process involved in the elimination of proteins and organelles. It is also used to combat infection with pathogenic microbes. The intracellular pathogen Legionella pneumophila manipulates autophagy by delivering the effector protein RavZ to deconjugate Atg8/LC3 proteins coupled to phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) on autophagosomal membranes. To understand how RavZ...

Previously we reported that the expression of promyelocytic leukemia (PML)-retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARα) fusion gene, which is caused by specific translocation (15;17) in acute promyelocytic leukemia, can enhance constitutive autophagic activity in leukemic and nonleukemic cells, and PML overexpression can sequestrate part of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) protein in P...

LC3 has been used as a marker to locate autophagosomes. However, it is also well established that LC3 can localize on various membranous structures other than autophagosomes. We recently demonstrated that the LC3 conjugation system (ATG7, ATG3, and ATG12-ATG5-ATG16L1) is required to target LC3 and IFNG (interferon, gamma)-inducible GTPases to the parasitophorus vacuole membrane (PVM) of a proti...

Background: The accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins has been detected in diseased hearts and associated with the expression p62 microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3), which are related to autophagy. We evaluated differences ubiquitin LC3 cardiomyopathy using endomyocardial biopsies.

PURPOSE To examine the activation of autophagy and its relationship to Fas-mediated photoreceptor apoptosis during experimental retinal detachment. METHODS Retina-retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) separation was created in Brown-Norway rats by subretinal injection of 1% hyaluronic acid and the intraretinal levels of the autophagy proteins LC3 and Atg5, the time course of LC3-I to LC3-II conver...

Reliable and quantitative assays to measure in vivo autophagy are essential. Currently, there are varied methods for monitoring autophagy; however, it is a challenge to measure "autophagic flux" in an in vivo model system. Conversion and subsequent degradation of the microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (MAP1-LC3/LC3) to the autophagosome associated LC3-II isoform can be evaluated by ...

The development of more effective antituberculosis vaccines would contribute to the control of the global problem of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). Recently, the highlighted importance of autophagy in the host immune response against MTB has attracted the attention of researchers. However, the vaccines targeted at autophagy remain to be developed. In this study, we report on a...