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Phagocytosis

Autophagy lends a hand

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 8, pages 92–93 (2008)Cite this article

Autophagy is a process by which cells dispose of unwanted cytosolic components or microorganisms. A key step in this process is the conjugation of the autophagy marker LC3 to the lipid phosphatidylethanolamine, forming LC3 aggregates on autophagic membranes. Using a fluorescently tagged form of LC3, Sanjuan et al. observed that LC3 was also recruited to the membranes of phagosomes that had engulfed latex beads associated with various TLR ligands. Importantly, LC3 recruitment to such phagosomes only occurred if the latex particle engaged TLRs while it was being internalized and therefore did not occur on internalization of latex beads alone or in TLR2-deficient macrophages that had ingested the TLR2 ligand zymosan.

Other components of the autophagy process — namely ATG5 (autophagy-related 5) and ATG7 — were shown to be required for TLR-induced LC3 recruitment to phagosomes. And similar to autophagy, LC3 aggregation on phagosomes was preceded by the recruitment of beclin-1 and phosphoinositide 3-kinase activity. However, unlike conventional autophagosomes, double-membrane structures did not form around the TLR-induced phagosomes associated with autophagy components.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Sanjuan, M. A. et al. Toll-like receptor signalling in macrophages links the autophagy pathway to phagocytosis. Nature 450, 1253–1257 (2007)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Levine, B. & Deretic, V. Unveiling the roles of autophagy in innate and adaptive immunity. Nature Rev. Immunol. 7, 767–777 (2007)

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Authors
  1. Lucy Bird
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Bird, L. Autophagy lends a hand. Nat Rev Immunol 8, 92–93 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri2258

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