2. Academic Validation
  3. A model for a partnership of lipid transfer proteins and scramblases in membrane expansion and organelle biogenesis

A model for a partnership of lipid transfer proteins and scramblases in membrane expansion and organelle biogenesis

  • Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Apr 20;118(16):e2101562118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2101562118.
Alireza Ghanbarpour 1,  Diana P Valverde 1,  Thomas J Melia 2,  Karin M Reinisch 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520.
  • 2 Department of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520 [email protected] [email protected].
PMID: 33850023 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101562118
Abstract

The Autophagy protein ATG2, proposed to transfer bulk lipid from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) during autophagosome biogenesis, interacts with ER residents TMEM41B and VMP1 and with ATG9, in Golgi-derived vesicles that initiate autophagosome formation. In vitro assays reveal TMEM41B, VMP1, and ATG9 as scramblases. We propose a model wherein membrane expansion results from the partnership of a lipid transfer protein, moving lipids between the cytosolic leaflets of apposed organelles, and scramblases that reequilibrate the leaflets of donor and acceptor organelle membranes as lipids are depleted or augmented. TMEM41B and VMP1 are implicated broadly in lipid homeostasis and membrane dynamics processes in which their scrambling activities likely are key.

Keywords

ATG9A; TMEM41B; VMP1; scramblase.

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