Cefan Zhou, Xuehong Qian, Miao Hu, Rui Zhang, Nanxi Liu, Yuan Huang, Jing Yang, Juan Zhang, Hua Bai, Yuyan Yang, Yefu Wang, Declan Ali, Marek Michalak, Xing-Zhen Chen, Jingfeng Tang
Macroautophagy/autophagy plays key roles in development, oncogenesis, and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Autophagy-specific class III phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase complex I (PtdIns3K-C1) is essential for autophagosome formation. However, the regulation of this complex formation requires further investigation. Here, we discovered that STYK1 (serine/threonine/tyrosine kinase 1), a member of the receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) family, is a new upstream regulator of autophagy. We discovered that STYK1 facilitated autophagosome formation in human cells and zebrafish, which was characterized by elevated LC3-II and lowered SQSTM1/p62 levels and increased puncta formation by several marker proteins, such as ATG14, WIPI1, and ZFYVE1...
November 7, 2019: Autophagy