Characterization of constitutive ER-phagy of excess membrane proteins

PLoS Genet. 2020 Dec 4;16(12):e1009255. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009255. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Thirty percent of all cellular proteins are inserted into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which spans throughout the cytoplasm. Two well-established stress-induced pathways ensure quality control (QC) at the ER: ER-phagy and ER-associated degradation (ERAD), which shuttle cargo for degradation to the lysosome and proteasome, respectively. In contrast, not much is known about constitutive ER-phagy. We have previously reported that excess of integral-membrane proteins is delivered from the ER to the lysosome via autophagy during normal growth of yeast cells. Whereas endogenously expressed ER resident proteins serve as cargos at a basal level, this level can be induced by overexpression of membrane proteins that are not ER residents. Here, we characterize this pathway as constitutive ER-phagy. Constitutive and stress-induced ER-phagy share the basic macro-autophagy machinery including the conserved Atgs and Ypt1 GTPase. However, induction of stress-induced autophagy is not needed for constitutive ER-phagy to occur. Moreover, the selective receptors needed for starvation-induced ER-phagy, Atg39 and Atg40, are not required for constitutive ER-phagy and neither these receptors nor their cargos are delivered through it to the vacuole. As for ERAD, while constitutive ER-phagy recognizes cargo different from that recognized by ERAD, these two ER-QC pathways can partially substitute for each other. Because accumulation of membrane proteins is associated with disease, and constitutive ER-phagy players are conserved from yeast to mammalian cells, this process could be critical for human health.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Autophagy*
  • Autophagy-Related Proteins / genetics
  • Autophagy-Related Proteins / metabolism
  • Endoplasmic Reticulum / metabolism
  • Endoplasmic Reticulum-Associated Degradation*
  • Membrane Proteins / metabolism*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / genetics
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / metabolism
  • Stress, Physiological
  • rab GTP-Binding Proteins / genetics
  • rab GTP-Binding Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • Autophagy-Related Proteins
  • Membrane Proteins
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins
  • YPT1 protein, S cerevisiae
  • rab GTP-Binding Proteins

Grants and funding

Funding for N.S. was from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) grant GM-45444 and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) grant NS-099556. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.