Autophagosomes articles from across Nature Portfolio

How membrane morphology is regulated during autophagosome formation remains elusive. Here, authors reveal a mechanism by which the forming autophagosomal membrane expands with a large opening for non-selective sequestration of the cytoplasm.

The endoplasmic reticulum protein DFCP1 is found on omegasomes implicated in autophagosome biogenesis, but its function has remained unknown. Here, Nähse et al. show that DFCP1 is an ATPase that mediates selective autophagy by promoting constriction of large omegasomes.

Autophagy is known to impact CD4+ T cell proliferation but the identity of autophagosomal components remain unclear. Here the authors leverage a transgenic mouse model to assess the autophagosomal compartment and identify interleukin-7 receptor-α as a key cargo in proliferating CD4+ T cells.

Zhou and colleagues identify SNX4–SNX5–SNX17 as a multiunit complex that mediates the recycling of autophagosomal components from autolysosomes.

Hypoxia induces mitochondrial clearance and autophagy, although the upstream mechanisms are not well defined. Here, the authors identify that oxygen-sensitive methylation of the key autophagy regulator ULK1 promotes ULK1 activation and subsequent autophagosome formation and mitochondrial clearance.

Using in vitro reconstitution systems, three studies shed light on the interactions of Atg8 family proteins with cargo receptors and components of the basal autophagy machinery. The results have important mechanistic implications for selective macroautophagy, scaffold formation and spatio-temporal organization of the lipidation process during autophagosome formation.

Our knowledge of autophagy has taken several 'quantum leaps' since the term was coined by Christian de Duve.