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Primary cilia mechanosensing triggers autophagy-regulated cell volume control

Nature Cell Biology volume 18, pages 591–592 (2016)Cite this article

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The primary cilium and the process of autophagy are thought to be in a functionally reciprocal relationship. In further support of this link, fluid flow sensing by the primary cilium is now shown to induce autophagy, which in turn regulates the volume of kidney epithelial cells.

In recent years, autophagy, the degradative process of cellular components in response to stress, and the functions of the primary cilium, an antenna-like sensory organelle, have been attracting increased research attention in light of their respective biomedical importance in age-related human pathologies1 and cilia-dependent disorders, known as ciliopathies2. Interestingly, recent evidence points to a functional crosstalk between the primary cilium and autophagy3. Adding to this body of work, Orhon et al.4 now report in this issue of Nature Cell Biology that sensing of fluid flow by the primary cilium regulates kidney cell volume by inducing autophagy through LKB1 (liver kinase B1) and AMPK (AMP-activated kinase) signalling, while inhibiting mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin).

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Figure 1: Regulation of the epithelial kidney cell volume is mediated by primary-cilium-dependent autophagy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zsuzsanna Takacs and Tassula Proikas-Cezanne are in the Interfaculty Institute of Cell Biology, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, and the International Max Planck Research School 'From Molecules to Organisms', Tübingen, Germany.,

    Zsuzsanna Takacs & Tassula Proikas-Cezanne

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  1. Zsuzsanna Takacs
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  2. Tassula Proikas-Cezanne
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Correspondence to Tassula Proikas-Cezanne.

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Takacs, Z., Proikas-Cezanne, T. Primary cilia mechanosensing triggers autophagy-regulated cell volume control. Nat Cell Biol 18, 591–592 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb3366

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