Role of ATG8 and autophagy in programmed nuclear degradation in Tetrahymena thermophila.

ABSTRACT: Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism for the degradation of cellular components, but its role in enucleation during differentiation has not been established. Tetrahymena thermophila is a unicellular eukaryote with two functionally distinct nuclei, the somatic (macro-) and the germ line (micro-) nuclei. These nuclei are produced during sexual reproduction (conjugation), which involves differentiation and selective degradation of several specific nuclei. To examine the role of autophagy in nuclear degradation, we studied the function of two ATG8 genes in Tetrahymena. Through fluorescent protein tagging, we found that both proteins are targeted to degrading nuclei at specific stages, with some enrichment on the nuclear periphery, suggesting the formation of autophagosomes surrou

SUBMITTER: Liu ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3318292 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature