Autophagy provides metabolic substrates to maintain energy charge and nucleotide pools in Ras-driven lung cancer cells.

ABSTRACT: Autophagy degrades and is thought to recycle proteins, other macromolecules, and organelles. In genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) for Kras-driven lung cancer, autophagy prevents the accumulation of defective mitochondria and promotes malignancy. Autophagy-deficient tumor-derived cell lines are respiration-impaired and starvation-sensitive. However, to what extent their sensitivity to starvation arises from defective mitochondria or an impaired supply of metabolic substrates remains unclear. Here, we sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of wild-type or autophagy-deficient (Atg7(-/-)) Kras-driven lung tumors. Although Atg7 deletion resulted in increased mitochondrial mutations, there were too few nonsynonymous mutations to cause generalized mitochondrial dysfunction. In contrast, pu

SUBMITTER: Guo JY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5002976 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature