Lorenzo Picchianti, Víctor Sánchez de Medina Hernández, Ni Zhan, Nicholas At Irwin, Roan Groh, Madlen Stephani, Harald Hornegger, Rebecca Beveridge, Justyna Sawa-Makarska, Thomas Lendl, Nenad Grujic, Christin Naumann, Sascha Martens, Thomas A Richards, Tim Clausen, Silvia Ramundo, G Elif Karagöz, Yasin Dagdas
UFMylation involves the covalent modification of substrate proteins with UFM1 (Ubiquitin-fold modifier 1) and is important for maintaining ER homeostasis. Stalled translation triggers the UFMylation of ER-bound ribosomes and activates C53-mediated autophagy to clear toxic polypeptides. C53 contains noncanonical shuffled ATG8-interacting motifs (sAIMs) that are essential for ATG8 interaction and autophagy initiation. However, the mechanistic basis of sAIM-mediated ATG8 interaction remains unknown. Here, we show that C53 and sAIMs are conserved across eukaryotes but secondarily lost in fungi and various algal lineages...
February 10, 2023: EMBO Journal