The document discusses the molecular mechanism of autophagy and its role in plants. It begins with an introduction to autophagy and discusses landmarks in the discovery of autophagy. It then covers the different classes of autophagy, genes and proteins involved, and the molecular mechanism. This includes discussion of the induction, expansion, and maturation steps. It also discusses selective autophagy and techniques to study autophagy. The document concludes by covering the physiological roles of autophagy in plants, including roles in nutrient starvation, oxidative stress response, development, pathogen response, and programmed cell death.
Molecular Mechanism and Role of Autophagy in Plants
1. Molecular mechanism of autophagy
and its role in plants
1
SHRIKANT YANKANCHI
INDIRA GANDHI
AGRICULTURAL
UNIVERSITY (IGKV)
RAIPUR, CG
2. 2
Introduction
Landmarks of autophagy
Classes of Autophagy
Genes/Proteins involved in the mechanism autophagy
Molecular Mechanism of autophagy
Physiological Roles of Autophagy in plants
Case studies
Conclusion
Flow of Seminar
3. Introduction
3
Damaged organelles?
Aggregated Proteins?
Long lived or Abnormal proteins?
Part of invading virus
Cells turnover
http://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/166
One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is
perfect. “Perfection simply Doesn’t exist” – Stephen
4. Effects of aggregation?
4
continual aggregation of proteins
Recycling is essential
for life
-critical selection factor in
evolution
-important ability for
survival against
starvation
neurodegenerative diseases
Alzheimer’s, Huntington,
Parkinson’s, and the prion maladies.
Cellular
Toxicity
5. 5
Yoshinori Ohsumi, 201
degradation
Life is in an
equilibrium state
between synthesis
and degradation of
proteins
Eg: replacement of
most proteins every
3 months“difference between organisms and machine”
6. How Proteins are degraded?
6
In eukaryotic cells, two major pathways
i) The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway and
ii) Lysosomal proteolysis mediate protein
degradation
Cooper, 2000
9. ii) Lysosomal proteolysis mediate protein
degradation
9
Uptake of proteins by lysosome's
Yeast and Plants – Vacuole
Bulk and Non selective
Long lived proteins
One of the pathway to uptake cellular proteins -Autophagy
Protei
ns
Vacuole
10. Greek words - Auto (Self) phagein (to eat)
“ Autophagy is a Highly regulated cellular degradation
and recycling process, conserved from yeast to
more complex eukaryotes” - Wen and Klionsky, 2016
“ Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved intracellular
process for the vacuolar/lysosomal degradation
and recycle of cytoplasmic components”
-Yoshimoto, 2012
11. Timelines of autophagy
11
1955
Discovery of the Lysosome
1962
Auto (Self) - Phagy (Eating) “Autophagy”
Christian de Duve
Rockefeller University
Nobel Prize (1974)
14. Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo,
Japan
“Discoveries of mechanisms for
autophagy in Yeast – Saccharomyces
cerevisiae
https://www.nobelprize.org/
14
15. How autophagy activated ?
15
Extracellular and Intracellular factors
Growth factors
Nutrient deprivation/under starvation
Stress- oxidative, salt, ER stress
During pathogen invasion
Protein aggregation/ organelle aggregation
16. Which are the classes of autophagy?
16
Based on mechanisms of transport to lysosome/vacuole
Macro-autophagy (Autophagy)
Micro-autophagy
Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA)
Xin et al., 2014
18. Class of Microautophagy
18
Non-selective
Cytoplasmic material is trapped in the lysosome/vacuole
by the random process of membrane invagination
Observed in all types of eucaryotic cells
Selective
Micropexophagy - Cluster of damaged and/or
superfluous peroxisomes
Micromitophagy - Mitochondria
Li et al., 2011
19. Role
19
microautophagy functions in a coordinated
way with macroautophagy and CMA
Helps cells to withstand prolonged
starvation by endless recycle of nutrients
and energy
22. substrates identified for CMA pathway
22
Ribonuclease A
Glycolytic enzymes
Eg: glyceraldehye-3-phosphate, dehydrogenase,
aldolase B, pyruvate kinase, aspartate
transcriptions factors or its inhibitors
lipogenic enzymes
structural proteins
calcium-binding proteins
23. Activity of CMA pathway
23
CMA is upregulated after periods of nutrient
deprivation of 10 hours or longer
CMA activation persists past 3 days of starvation
becoming a source of recycled amino acids for protein
synthesis
Part of these amino acids may also be used as cellular
Tekirdag and Cuervo, 201
25. 25
universal catabolic process of intracellular degradation that
delivers cytoplasmic constituents (macromolecules and
organelles) to the vacuole/lysosome
Major source of amino acid and other essential basic
elements (lipids, sugars, nucleotides) - Starvation
Highly conserved
Formation of “autophagosome”
Macro-autophagy (Autophagy)
Ryabovol and Minibayeva, 2015
26. Terminologies
26
Autophagosome - double membrane vesicle or structure
through which cargo delivers to lysosome/vacuole
Phagophore - Autophagosome formation is initiated in the
cytoplasm with the formation of a cuplike membrane
structure, called phagophore or isolation membrane
Pre-autophagomal-structure/site (PAS)- the putative site for
autophagosome formation
27. 27
Which are the Steps of autophagic
pathway?
1. Induction 2. Expansion 3. Maturation 4. Fusion 5. Recycling
Steps in Autophagy
(Animal)
Membran
e
precursor
Phagophore
PAS
Isolation membrane
Macromolecules
Eg: protein
Autophagosome
Lysosome
Autolysosome
30. 30
Nutrient deprived condition/Starvation
Growth factors Eg: Hormones
Defective or in excess, cytotoxic protein aggregates
Radiations – Damaged Excess organelles
upregulated during
senescence
under nitrogen or
fixed-carbon starvation
hypersensitive response following pathogen
(Li et al., 2014)
Factors/Conditions stimulating
autophagy
32. Key Regulators of Autophagy
32
Nutrient and growth factor-sensitive signalling pathways
mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)/ plant
TOR
5'-adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-activated
protein kinase (AMPK)/SNF1/SnRK1
signaling pathways
Autophagy-related Genes/proteins (ATGs)
Xin et al., 2014
33. TOR – Target of Rapamycin
• 270 kDA
• mTORC1 and mTORC2 complex
33
TORC1complex
mTOR + RAPTOR (regulatory- associated
protein of TOR) + mLST8 (Lethal with Sec
Thirteen 8). RAPTOR – phosphorylation and
LST8 – Stabilization. RAPTOR - Recruitment
This complex functions as a nutrient/energy sensor
and controls protein synthesis
Rapamycin, insulin, growth factors, certain
amino acids and their mechanical stimuli, and
oxidative stress Crozet et al., 2014
TOR Complex 2 (TORC2)
TOR + RICTOR (rapamycin-insensitive
companion of MTOR) + LST8, and
mammalian stress-activated protein
kinase interacting protein 1 (mSIN1)
44. Techniques to Study Autophagy
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis remains “the golden
standard,”.
44
Electron micrographs of representative Arabidopsis cells grown for 12 h in
(A) control medium supplemented with 1.5% sucrose (B) in sucrose-free medium
1. Electron microscopy
45. 2.Molecular Markers
• Proteins involved in autophagy
• autophagy-related phenotypes under different experimental conditions -
caused by ATG gene modifications in Arabidopsis thaliana
45
Mitou et al., 2009
46. Tests of Lysosomal/Vacuolar Activity
Lysotracker - visualize acidic compartments
- specific markers of autophagy
Concanamycin A - a compound that blocks the degradation
of autophagic bodies within the central vacuole
Acridine Orange (AO) - fluorescent basic dye accumulates in
acidic compartments, where it forms aggregates that fluoresce
bright red.
• In acridine orange-stained cells, cytoplasm and nucleolus emit
bright green fluorescence, whereas acidic compartments
fluoresce in bright red.
Monodansylcadaverine (MDC). The autofluorescent substance
MDC is commonly used to detect autophagic vacuoles in plants
and in other organisms
E64d - inhibit autophagy, autophagic vesicles accumulates
inside vacuoles 46
47. Role of Autophagy in Human Diseases
47
Autophagy can both inhibit and promote cancer
formation through different mechanisms,
depending on the stage of tumour
Autophagy has multiple roles during
tumorigenesis
50. Physiological Roles of Autophagy in
plants50
1. Autophagy in Nutrient Starvation
sucrose, carbon and nitrogen - activate autophagy
AtATG7, AtATG8, and AtATG9
yellowing of leaves
expression of AtSEN1, a senescence marker gene, accelerate
senescence
Involved in Root hair formation and root elongation under nutrient
starvation conditions - Li et al.,2015
51. 2. Autophagy in the Oxidative Stress
Response
51
Reactive oxygen species (ROS)
Activated derivatives of oxygen
Highly toxic materials - accumulate in large amounts
under various environmental stress conditions and/or
during developmental stages
Cell death - Damage to carbohydrates, DNA, lipids,
and proteins
Reduction in degradation efficiency
DSSP
52. 3. Autophagy in Development
52
Cell growth and differentiation
Root hair formation and root elongation under nutrient
starvation conditions
ATG2 and ATG5 Autophagy induction - not observe in the root
tips in response to sucrose deprivation
AtAtg6 - Arabidopsis homolog of yeast Atg6/Vps30 and
tobacco Beclin 1 proteins, lead to pollen germination defects
when disrupted – Qin et al., 2007
ATG8-interacting proteins (ATI1 and ATI2) over expressed or
suppressed in both ATI1 and ATI2, respectively, stimulates or
inhibits seed germination Honig et al., 2012
53. 4. Autophagy as a defence against intracellular
pathogens
53
Xenophagy – pathway
HR in which plant cells at the site of infection are killed by programmed cell
death, ATG6 - uncontrolled HR
Autophagy has also been reported to play important roles in suppression of
cell death and defense response to, the powdery mildew fungus through
AtATG2 and AtATG18 in Arabidopsis - Wang et al., 2011
An orthologue of the ATG6 gene was studied in Nicotiana benthamiana.
Silencing of the ATG6 gene by RNA interference in plants resulted in
reduced autophagy and uncontrolled HR upon infection with tobacco mosaic
54. 4. Autophagy in Programmed Cell Death
54
Autophagy is a mechanism that facilitates cell survival in response to
abiotic and biotic stresses and controls PCD by degrading toxic
cellular components
Mariño et al., 2014
Functional relationship between autophagy and
55. 55
Li et al.,2015, 468: 800-
806
Identified an SiATG8a, from foxtail millet
SiATG8a is mainly expressed in stems and its expression was induced by
drought stress and nitrogen starvation
Objective : To analyse the effect of autophagy during nitrogen starvation
and to drought stress
56. 56
For the nitrogen starvation - Seeds were germinated
on MS medium and 15 days old seedlings were
treated with N-deficient liquid medium
For the drought stress treatments, 3-week-old
seedlings were treated with 6% PEG for 1 h, 6 h, 24
h, 36 h, and 48 h
MDA (malondialdehyde)
MDA: marker for stress.
60. Future perspectives of autophagy in plants
60
Poorly understood - no suitable molecular marker to
trace when and where autophagy is induced in plants
Only a few autophagy and autophagy-related mutants
have been identified in plants
Approaches and methods for analyzing autophagy
reported in the literature are not always appropriate
61. Future perspectives
61
Crosstalk between autophagy and photosynthesis
Transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation
The lipid composition of autophagosomal membranes, and the
way lipids are mobilized, delivered and assembled within them
Mechanisms and physiological roles of granulophagy and
ribophagy in plants
The role of autophagy in cell remodelling during cell
differentiation
Manipulation of autophagy for better nutrient management at the
whole-plant level.
Metabolic checkpoints in autophagy regulation in source and
sink tissues
63. REFERENCES
63
Floyd, B. E., Pu, Y., Soto-Burgos, J. and Bassham, D. C, 2015, To live or die: autophagy in plants. Springer,Switzerland,
pp.269-300. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-21033-9_11.
Li, W., Chen, M., Zhong, L., Liu, J., Xu, Z., Li, L., Zhou, Y., Guo, C. and Ma, Y., 2015, Overexpression of the autophagy-
related gene SiATG8a from foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) confers tolerance to both nitrogen starvation and drought
stress in Arabidopsis. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun, 468: 800-806.
Ryabovol, V. V. and Minibayeva, F. V, 2016, Molecular mechanisms of autophagy in plants: Role of ATG8 proteins in
formation and functioning of autophagosomes. Biochemistry, 81(4): 348-363.
Wen, X. and Klionsky, D. J., 2016, An overview of macroautophagy in yeast. J Mol Biol, 428(9): 1681-1699
White, E., 2013, Deconvoluting the context-dependent role for autophagy in cancer. Nat Rev Cancer, 12(6): 401–410.
Xin, L., Xiaojun, P., Gongwei, Q., Tong, Z. and Honghui, L., 2014, The roles of autophagy in development and stress
responses in Arabidopsis thaliana. Apoptosis, 19: 905-921
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2016/press-release/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshinori_Ohsumi
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2016/ohsumi/lecture/
Although proteins are marginally stable and exhibit a level of mutational robustness, they do misfold under excessive environmental stresses or mutations.
Prompt degradation of irreversibly damaged proteins is essential to preserve normal cellular function
Cells maintain their homeostasis through continuous synthesis and degradation of their components.
neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington, Parkinson’s, and the prion maladies.
Ubiquitination requires three types of enzyme: ubiquitinactivating enzymes, ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes, and ubiquitin ligases, known as E1s, E2s, and E3s, respectively.
The other major pathway of protein degradation in eukaryotic cells involves the uptake of proteins by lysosomes
Autophagy is a process in which a eukaryotic (but not prokaryotic) cell destroys its own components through the lysosomal machinery.
Foundation stone was kept by the discovery of Lysosome, of Ignition to the mechanism of Autophagy given by Christien duve
Historical landmarks of autophagy research
Micropexophagy is a selective microautophagic pathway that engulfs a cluster of damaged and/or superfluous peroxisomes
Process of non-selective microautophagy can be observed in all types of eucaryotic cells.
Microautophagy, as well as macroautophagy, helps cells to withstand prolonged starvation by ceaseless recycle of nutrients and energy
A unique feature of this pathway is that all substrate proteins contain in their amino acid sequence a motif, biochemically related to the pentapeptide KFERQ,
Selectively degrade viral proteins bacterial proteins, prions, fungal proteins etc.
Autophagy appears to be a highly conserved process, since it has been found in all eukaryotic organisms
Plant cells employ multiple catabolic mechanisms to remove dysfunctional and unneeded constituents and to recycle intracellular nutrients. A major route involves macroautophagy (hereafter referred to as autophagy), which encapsulates and delivers cytoplasmic material to the vacuole for breakdown (reviewed in . Central to this process is the de novo formation of a cup-shaped vesicle called the phagophore (or isolation membrane) by a set of AUTOPHAGY-RELATED (ATG) proteins that localize within a common phagophore assembly site (PAS). The phagophore elongates, engulfs cytoplasmic material, and eventually seals to create a double membrane-enclosed compartment called the autophagosome, which subsequently fuses with the vacuole/lysosome to release the internal vesicle as an autophagic body. The autophagic body and its cargo are then degraded by vacuolar hydrolases, and the resulting metabolites are exported back to the cytoplasm for reuse.
defective or in excess, cytotoxic protein aggregates (aggrephagy), and even invading pathogens (xenophagy) (Johansen and Lamark, 2011).
The scaffold proteins have several roles. First, they interact with and recruit other core autophagy machinery components, such as the Atg1 complex38 (FIG. 3c–f); during starvation, typically both Atg11 and Atg17 are involved. During nutrient deprivation, the target of rapamycin complex 1 (TORC1), which is a protein kinase, is inactivated, resulting in hypophosphorylation of Atg13 (REF. 39) (FIG. 1). The hypophosphorylated Atg13–Atg1 complex is then bound by the Atg17–Atg29–Atg31 complex and recruited to form the PAS38,40,41. Interestingly, Atg11 can recruit Atg17 to the PAS in the absence of Atg1 and Atg13 through interactions with the Atg29–Atg31 complex42.
transmembrane protein ATG9 which helps deliver lipids to the expanding phagophore in conjunction with the peripheral ATG2 and ATG18 proteins.
Active Atg1 phosphorylates itself as well as the autophagy-related integral membrane protein Atg9, which recruits the Atg2–Atg18 complex to initiate phagophore membrane elongation4
The transmembrane protein Atg9 cycles between the mitochondria and the pre-autophagosomal structure, which is the site of autophagosome biogenesis. Atg9 is thought to mediate the delivery of membrane to the forming autophagosome.
In all organisms studied, under high-nutrient conditions, TOR activates protein synthesis and growth pathways and inhibits autophagy, whereas under low-nutrient conditions, growth is blocked and autophagy is activated. TOR is so named because it was identified in screens for yeast mutants that are resistant to the effects of rapamycin. TOR is a member of the phosphatidylinositol kinase-related kinase family based on its sequence but functionally is a serine/ threonine protein kinase
In budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to date 34 Autophagy Related Genes (ATG)
ATG genes have also been identified in various crop plants, such as soya, tomatoes, tobacco, wheat, rice, maize, etc. ryabovol 2016
The scaffold proteins have several roles. First, they interact with and recruit other core autophagy machinery components, such as the Atg1 complex38 (FIG. 3c–f); during starvation, typically both Atg11 and Atg17 are involved. During nutrient deprivation, the target of rapamycin complex 1 (TORC1), which is a protein kinase, is inactivated, resulting in hypophosphorylation of Atg13 (REF. 39) (FIG. 1). The hypophosphorylated Atg13–Atg1 complex is then bound by the Atg17–Atg29–Atg31 complex and recruited to form the PAS38,40,41. Interestingly, Atg11 can recruit Atg17 to the PAS in the absence of Atg1 and Atg13 through interactions with the Atg29–Atg31 complex42.
transmembrane protein ATG9 which helps deliver lipids to the expanding phagophore in conjunction with the peripheral ATG2 and ATG18 proteins.
Active Atg1 phosphorylates itself as well as the autophagy-related integral membrane protein Atg9, which recruits the Atg2–Atg18 complex to initiate phagophore membrane elongation4
The transmembrane protein Atg9 cycles between the mitochondria and the pre-autophagosomal structure, which is the site of autophagosome biogenesis. Atg9 is thought to mediate the delivery of membrane to the forming autophagosome.
The first mechanism is ATG8 dependent (Fig. 3a). Many selective substrates have LC3-interacting regions (LIRs, also known as ATG8-interacting motifs (AIMs)) or GABARAP-interacting motifs (GIMs), which bind to ATG8 (LC3s and GABARAPs in mammals) on autophagic membranes71,72
Fig. 3 | Potential mechanisms of selective macroautophagy. a, Selective substrates (such as proteins, organelles and bacteria) have or recruit autophagy receptors (for example, SQSTM1/p62, NBR1 and optineurin), which are recognized by ATG8 (LC3 and GABARAP in mammals) family proteins on the autophagosomal membrane. To recruit receptors, substrates are often ubiquitinated and bind to the ubiquitin-binding regions in autophagy receptors. b, Autophagy receptors recruit the autophagy initiation complex (ATG1 and ULK complexes in yeast and mammals, respectively) either directly or indirectly to induce autophagy. c, Selective substrates (for example, ubiquitinated proteins, damaged organelles or bacteria) may accumulate at the site of autophagosome formation and are engulfed by autophagosomes even without direct recognition. d, Autophagic membranes may elongate by wetting on the surface of intracellular condensates (liquid/fluid droplets) generated by liquid–liquid phase separation.
Understanding and exploiting autophagy signaling in plants
Proteins that are involved in the autophagy process or that are degraded specifically through autophagy have been used to monitor autophagic activity. Several of them are already in use in plants. Plants knockout and transgenic for these markers are useful tools to study autophagy-related phenotypes under different experimental conditions
- The autofluorescent substance MDC is commonly used to detect autophagic vacuoles in plants and in other organisms - Spherical structures were observed by fluorescence microscopy
Reactive oxidative species (ROS) are highly toxic materials that accumulate in large amounts under various environmental stress conditions and/or during developmental stages ROS can lead to cell death by causing damage to carbohydrates, DNA, lipids, and proteins Oxidized proteins also accumulate in those plants due to a reduction in degradation efficiency
Oxidized proteins also accumulate in those plants due to a reduction in degradation efficiency (Xiong et al., 2007a). These results demonstrate that oxidized and damaged cellular components produced during oxidative stress are transferred to the vacuole for autophagic degradation
Wild-type and transgenic Arabidopsis seedlings grown under nitrogen starvation conditions.
Lateral root numbers (B), the total surface area of roots (C), the total surface area of leaves (D), root length (E), nitrogen content (F), and protein
content (G) of wild-type and transgenic plants. Values are means ± standard deviation (SD) (n ¼ 3 independent experiments, t-test; identical and different letters represent,
respectively, non-significant and significant differences).
Reactive oxygen species degrade polyunsaturated lipids, forming malondialdehyde - The production of this aldehyde is used as a biomarker to measure the level of oxidative stress in an organism
The molecular mechanism and physiological role of autophagy in plants, however, is still poorly understood
No suitable molecular marker to trace when and where autophagy is induced in plants and only a few autophagy and autophagy-related mutants have been identified in plants
The following are key topics for future research into plant autophagy