Chapters authored
The Role of Ubiquitin System in Autophagy
Autophagy is a highly conserved lysosomal degradation pathway, which has been shown to play a pivotal role during normal physiological and pathological conditions. Many proteins and signaling pathways have been shown to regulate autophagy during different stages of the process. Modifying autophagy-related proteins (Atg) by posttranslational modification (PTM) is an important way to control proper autophagic activity. Ubiquitination is one of the PTM that has a crucial role in controlling protein stability and functions. Proteins can be conjugated with ubiquitin chains with different topologies that are associated with different outcomes. Many autophagy regulators are found to be substrates for ubiquitin E3 ligases or deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs). Ubiquitination modifications of these autophagy regulators result in autophagy induction or termination. Moreover, ubiquitin is also involved in selective autophagy by acting as a degradation signal. Here, we are going to review how E3 ligases and DUBs function in autophagy regulation and discuss the recent findings about ubiquitination regulation in autophagy-related processes and diseases.
Part of the book: Autophagy in Current Trends in Cellular Physiology and Pathology