Abstract
Autophagy is a catabolic process that takes place under both normal and adverse conditions and is important for the degradation of various organelles and proteins that are no longer needed. Thus, it can be viewed as both a constitutive recycling machinery and an adaptation mechanism. Increase in the activity of autophagy can be caused by multiple biotic and abiotic stress factors. Though intensive research in the past decade has elucidated many molecular details of plant autophagy, the mechanisms of induction and regulation of the process remain understudied. Here, we discuss the role of ATG8 proteins in autophagic signaling and regulation with an emphasis on the significance of ATG8 diversification for adapting autophagy to the changing needs of plants.
Introduction
Plants are unable to escape from unfavorable environmental conditions or damaging interactions with other organisms. Hence, in order to survive, they need to adapt to the changes in their surroundings as fast as possible. Due to these characteristics, it is important for plants to efficiently acquire essential elements, produce and reuse metabolites, and optimize energy consumption by recycling of cellular components.
One mechanism to degrade and recycle cytoplasmic material and provide building blocks in eukaryotic cells is autophagy (; ; ). Microautophagy occurs through invagination of the tonoplast engulfing cytoplasmic material in autophagic bodies while macroautophagy, hereafter referred to as autophagy, involves the formation of a cup-shaped phagophore which closes to form the autophagosome. Research conducted in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae identified the main players in autophagy and revealed the detailed molecular mechanisms of autophagic degradation (Tsukada and Ohsumi, 1993; Noda et al., 1995; Ohsumi, 2001). Further studies with model organisms, including Arabidopsis thaliana, demonstrated high degree of conservation for the autophagic proteins in plants ().
The induction of autophagy in plants involves several protein kinases (Figures 1A,B). The best studied example is the target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase which is a negative regulator of autophagy and its downregulation or inhibition leads to constitutive activation of autophagy (). TOR belongs to the TORC1 complex together with its target recognition cofactor REGULATORY-ASSOCIATED PROTEIN OF mTOR (RAPTOR), and the stabilizer LETHAL WITH SEC13 8 (LST8) (Shi et al., 2018). Once activated, the TOR kinase transfers the signals downstream by phosphorylating the ATG1/ATG13 complex thus stimulating autophagic vesiculation that involves the decoration of the phagophore with phosphatidylinositol-3 phosphate (PI3P) and the delivery of lipids to the expanding phagophore (Suttangkakul et al., 2011). The ubiquitin-like ATG8 is then processed by the cysteine protease ATG4, which leads to the exposure of the c-terminal glycine of ATG8, allowing its recruitment to the phagophore through the attachment of the phospholipid phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) (). Following closure, the newly formed double membrane delimited autophagosome is transported to the vacuole and fuses with the tonoplast, subsequently releasing its single-membrane content as an autophagic body into the vacuole.
FIGURE 1
Autophagy in plants was initially described as a system for bulk recycling of cytoplasmic material (). However, it is becoming increasingly evident that the process can be highly selective and requires strict regulation on multiple levels. An enormous body of studies of autophagy in plants elucidated the functions of core components and has been discussed in multiple excellent review articles (Ohsumi, 2001; Marshall and Vierstra, 2018; Shi et al., 2018; Yoshimoto and Ohsumi, 2018). Although some aspects of autophagy modulation have been well-studied, the detailed mechanisms remain elusive. In this review, we focus on regulation of autophagy mainly through ATG8 diversification and specialization.
Tor Kinase as a Central Modulator of ATG Proteins
Small molecules, mineral nutrients, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and phytohormones can influence the activity of autophagy and ATG proteins in plants in a TOR-dependent manner. Amino acid availability and abundance of their degradation products affect metabolic and developmental processes () including autophagy (Meijer et al., 2015). However, only cysteine has been described in detail in plants, with sulfur availability being sensed by the TOR kinase and the carbon/nitrogen (C/N) precursors by GENERAL CONTROL NON-DEPRESSIBLE2 (GCN2) kinase () (Figure 1A). High levels of sulfur lead to increased glucose levels, and subsequently activate TOR, whereas reduced glucose levels during sulfur deficiency or impaired photosynthesis inhibit TOR and activate autophagy (reviewed in ). Glucose is the likely transmitter of the signal between sulfur and TOR () but whether it could convey the availability of other nutrients in the context of autophagy is unclear. The mechanisms of GCN2 perception in plants are unknown, although GCN2 activation by uncharged tRNAs appears to be universal in eukaryotes () (Figure 1A). Prolonged carbon starvation () and phosphate deficit which causes ER stress (Naumann et al., 2019) induce autophagy independently of TOR, although recent research in Chlamydomonas suggests LST8, the stabilizer of TOR, is involved in phosphate starvation response ().
The connection between autophagy and nitrogen metabolism, transport, and remobilization has been explored by the Masclaux-Daubresse lab and is covered in recent reviews (Masclaux-Daubresse et al., 2017; ). We will only mention that N depletion strongly inhibits TOR and activates autophagy, although its deficit also leads to accumulation of sugars, including glucose, which activates TOR and inhibits autophagy (). Zinc deficit has also been shown to induce autophagy in Arabidopsis thaliana although the mechanisms are unclear (Shinozaki et al., 2020). In mammalian cells, iron is released from storage by Nuclear Receptor Coactivator4 (NCOA4) autophagy receptor mediated ferritin degradation in the lysosome (ferritinophagy) (Mancias et al., 2014; Mancias et al., 2015). In plants, multiple autophagy mutants of Arabidopsis have impaired translocation of iron, zinc and manganese, to the seeds, suggesting that deficit of these elements could induce autophagy (Pottier et al., 2018) (Figure 1A).
Phytohormones have been shown to regulate the TOR kinase and thus have the potential to affect TOR-dependent autophagy (reviewed in ). For example, auxin inhibits stress-induced autophagy by stimulating TOR activity (Schepetilnikov et al., 2017) (Figure 1B) or blocking autophagosome formation under certain stresses (Pu et al., 2017). Brassinosteroids (BRs) use the TOR kinase to inhibit autophagy and enhance their signaling through brassinazole-resistant (BZR)1 transcription factor at the same time (Zhang et al., 2016) (Figure 1B). BZR1 itself was shown to activate the transcription of the autophagy adaptor Neighbour of BRCA (NBR)1, promoting its own selective degradation (). Direct involvement of gibberellins (GA) in the regulation of autophagy is unclear although lower levels of GA were detected in the rice autophagy mutant osatg7-1 (). The stress hormone abscisic acid (ABA) represses TOR activity (Wang et al., 2018), leading to autophagy activation while TOR itself inhibits ABA signaling under favorable environmental conditions. High levels of salicylic acid (SA) have been associated with autophagy-mediated senescence and programmed cell death (PCD) (Yoshimoto et al., 2009). In Arabidopsis, SA also accumulates during flooding increasing ROS levels, and stimulating autophagy (). Both SA and PCD are strongly associated with pathogen response and plant immunity (; ). Autophagy regulation in the context of plant immunity is extensively covered in other recent reviews (Üstün et al., 2017; ).
Fine-Tuning Autophagy Through ATG8
One of the proteins central to the autophagic process, the ubiquitin-like ATG8, usually requires activation through post-translational cleavage by the ATG4 protease at the c-terminus. This process seems to be controlled for instance by ROS, that were shown to activate ATG4 in Chlamydomonas (Pérez-Pérez et al., 2012, 2016). Both ATG8 and ATG4 have more than one homolog in most plant species and several ATG4 homologs have been shown to interact preferentially with distinct ATG8 iso-forms (Woo et al., 2014; Seo et al., 2016). These observations imply that ATG8s and ATG4s could contribute to fine-tune specific and efficient induction of autophagy.
ATG8 can interact with receptor and adaptor proteins containing either ATG8-interacting motif [AIM/LIR; LIR-docking site (LDS)] or Ubiquitin-interacting motif [UIM; UIM-docking site (UDS)] (Marshall et al., 2019). UDS-interacting adaptors are the proteasome degradation subunit Regulatory particle non-ATPase (RPN)10 and the proteins from the Plant Ubiquitin Regulatory X Domain (PUX) family, which have diverse cellular functions (Marshall et al., 2015; Wen and Klionsky, 2016). LDS-interacting are NBR1 and the ATI (ATG8-interacting protein)1 and ATI2 proteins targeting plastid proteins for degradation upon carbon starvation (; Michaeli et al., 2014). Known autophagy receptors are: the Arabidopsis Orosomucoid (ORM) proteins 1 and 2, involved in Flagellin-Sensing 2 (FLS2) receptor kinase degradation (Yang et al., 2019); DSK2, targeting the brassenosteroid pathway regulator BES1 for degradation (Nolan et al., 2017); the Arabidopsis TSPO protein regulating the levels of PIP2;7 aquaporin on the cell surface (). Most recently, a dehydrin in Medicago truncatula MtCAS31 was found to promote autophagy under drought stress through interaction with ATG8 (). Autophagy in the context of hypoxia responses can be regulated by nitric oxide (NO) which can S-nitrosylate various proteins including the master regulator of NO signaling S-nitrosoglutathione reductase, thus exposing its ATG8-interacting motif and targeting it for degradation (Zhan et al., 2018). It is unclear whether the highly variable AIM/LIR provides another layer of specificity in terms of different ATG8 iso-forms interacting with different variants of the motif.
Given the diversity of ATG8s in higher plants, it is difficult to conclude on the importance of each iso-form based on single knockout mutants due to functional redundancy. Different ATG8s appear to be induced by varying stress factors or to alleviate them although some overlap has been discovered (Vanhee et al., 2011; Xia et al., 2012; Luo et al., 2017; ; ). The ability of different ATG8 iso-forms to interact with different effectors implies the existence of unique functions of the ATG8 homologs. Unfortunately, all the functional data so far have been obtained from a handful of model organisms and is not equally covering all the homologs. While it is essential that more in vivo and in planta data are acquired, in the next section we use existing resources such as available plant genomes together with transcriptomics and proteomics data to explore ATG8 specificities in the plant kingdom.
Significance of the ATG8 Diversity
ATG8 proteins have shown a tendency toward increase in number of iso-forms and diversification in multicellular organisms. Yeast and algae have a single homolog while in the genomes of higher plants, multiple homologs can be found (). The nine iso-forms (ATG8a-i) of Arabidopsis have been investigated more in depth revealing that they belong to three separate groups – a-d, e-g, and h-i (Seo et al., 2016; ). A characteristic of many members of the ATG8h-i group is that they have an exposed catalytic glycine residue, and do not require cleavage by the ATG4 protease for activation (Figure 2A) (Seo et al., 2016; ).
FIGURE 2
Analyzing several model and crop species showed that the presence of ATG8h-i group members is not strictly associated with the total number of ATG8 homologs in each species (Figure 2B). For example, in maize (Zea mays), none of the four ATG8s belong to the ATG8h-i group, while one of the four rice (Oryza sativa) homologs is cleavage-free. Additionally, while Medicago (Medicago truncatula) and soybean (Glycine max) have two ATG8h-i iso-forms each, only one in Medicago is cleavage-free. The rapeseed (Brassica napus) has six h-i homologs, all ending with a glycine (G) and as the plant is a recent alopolyploid (
Expression and Abundance of ATG8S
In order to estimate the potential for diversity of function of the ATG8s, we next analyzed data from two recent large-scale studies dealing with transcriptional regulation and with proteomics, respectively, conducted in Arabidopsis. The first study identified 225 transcription factors (TFs) by yeast one-hybrid screen able to bind the promoters of four ATG8 genes, namely ATG8a, b, e, and h (Wang et al., 2019) and thus having the potential to activate their transcription. Surprisingly, only 19 of those TFs were shared by all four genes. The ATG8e promoter interacted with 71 unique TFs. Transcriptional activation by phytohormones such as ET can affect the expression of various ATG genes which makes it essential for survival during submergence in Arabidopsis (
Apart from the evidence for differential transcriptional regulation of the ATG8 homologs, differences in protein levels have recently been documented by large scale quantitative transcriptome and proteome analysis of 30 different tissues (Mergner et al., 2020). While all ATG8 genes seem to be expressed in every analyzed tissue (Figure 2E), only AtATG8a, d, and f protein iso-forms are ubiquitously present (Figure 2F). Notably, in root, petal, carpel and senescing leaves all ATG8 proteins can be found and ATG8a appears to be the predominant iso-form in all tissues (Figure 2F) (Mergner et al., 2020). The AtATG8h protein is very strongly expressed in pollen and dry seed, reflecting high mRNA levels in the same tissues, but completely missing in rosette and cauline leaves. The other member of the clade, AtATG8i, also has the highest relative protein abundance in senescent leaves but is also strongly present in pollen and dry seed, and cotyledons also contain relatively high levels. One possible explanation for the discrepancies in transcript and protein abundance of the ATG8 could be different turnover rates of the proteins. It also remains to be established to what extent the exposed c-terminal glycine could offer an advantage in different autophagy inducing conditions and whether the h and i iso-forms would require some other type of activation.
Discussion
The presence of multiple regulation targets providing grounds for activity modulation of autophagy could be considered as an indicator that such intricate regulatory system is in fact necessary. It is without a doubt, that understanding the molecules and signals affecting the autophagy machinery would contribute to the elucidation of autophagy induction and regulation.
One of the most upstream targets of autophagy modulation, the TOR kinase, has recently featured in a phosphoproteomic screen combined with targeted proteomics analysis of interacting proteins, in Arabidopsis thaliana, identifying potential upstream and downstream components of the TOR network (Van Leene et al., 2019) that could be investigated together with many non-protein molecules in relation to autophagy regulation.
Increase in number of iso-forms and diversification of ATG8 in plants along the course of evolution might reflect the need to accommodate the requirements of the increased complexity of flowering species. It is possible that iso-form specific or clade-specific ATG8 functions exist or that certain homologs are more abundant in autophagosomes under given conditions, in specific tissues and organs or during certain developmental stages. Additionally, exploring the specificity of the ATG8 interactions and the significance of the cleavage free iso-forms, also by obtaining more functional data could further clarify the diversity of the ATG8 homologs in plants and contribute to the understanding of autophagy induction and regulation. In this line of thought, clarifying the molecular mechanisms regulating ATG4 and ATG8 would provide more insight into the process of fine-tuning autophagy.
Statements
Author contributions
SBW provided the initial draft while both SBW and EI were involved in the further editing of the manuscript and the preparation of the figures. Both authors conceptualized the idea.
Funding
SBW was a recipient of a Humboldt-Bayer research fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Work in the authors’ lab was supported by grants from the German Science Foundation (DFG: SFB969 and IS 221/6-1) to EI. The publication cost was supported by the Open Access Publication Fund of the University of Konstanz.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
References
1
Avin-WittenbergT.BaluškaF.BozhkovP. V.ElanderP. H.FernieA. R.GaliliG.et al (2018). Autophagy-related approaches for improving nutrient use efficiency and crop yield protection.J. Exp. Bot.691335–1353. 10.1093/jxb/ery069
2
BasshamD. C. (2009). Function and regulation of macroautophagy in plants.Biochim. Biophys. Acta17931397–1403. 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2009.01.001
3
CaoP.KimS. J.XingA.SchenckC. A.LiuL.JiangN.et al (2019). Homeostasis of branched-chain amino acids is critical for the activity of TOR signaling in Arabidopsis.Elife8:e50747. 10.7554/eLife.50747.sa2
4
ChaoY. T.YenS. H.YehJ. H.ChenW. C.ShihM. C. (2017). Orchidstra 2.0-A transcriptomics resource for the orchid family.Plant Cell Physiol.58:e9. 10.1093/pcp/pcw220
5
ChenL.LiaoB.QiH.XieL. J.HuangL.TanW. J.et al (2015). Autophagy contributes to regulation of the hypoxia response during submergence in Arabidopsis thaliana.Autophagy112233–2246. 10.1080/15548627.2015.1112483
6
ChenQ.SoulayF.SaudemontB.ElmayanT.MarmagneA.Masclaux-DaubresseC. (2018). Overexpression of ATG8 in Arabidopsis Stimulates autophagic activity and increases nitrogen remobilization efficiency and grain filling.Plant Cell Physiol.60343–352. 10.1093/pcp/pcy214
7
ChiC.LiX.FangP.XiaX.ShiK.ZhouY.et al (2020). Brassinosteroids act as a positive regulator of NBR1-dependent selective autophagy in response to chilling stress in tomato.J. Exp. Bot.71, 1092–1106. 10.1093/jxb/erz466
8
CousoI.Pérez-PérezM. E.FordM. M.Martínez-ForceE.HicksL. M.UmenJ. G.et al (2020). Phosphorus availability regulates TORC1 signaling via LST8 in Chlamydomonas.Plant Cell3269–80. 10.1105/tpc.19.00179
9
DongY.SilbermannM.SpeiserA.ForieriI.LinsterE.PoschetG.et al (2017). Sulfur availability regulates plant growth via glucose-TOR signaling.Nat. Commun.8:1174. 10.1038/s41467-017-01224-w
10
EndressP. K.IgersheimA. (2000). The reproductive structures of the basal angiosperm Amborella Trichopoda (Amborellaceae).Int. J. Plant Sci.161S237–S248. 10.1086/317571
11
FelsensteinJ. (1985). CONFIDENCE limits on phylogenies: an approach using the bootstrap.Evolution39783–791. 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1985.tb00420.x
12
FuL.WangP.XiongY. (2020). Target of Rapamycin signaling in plant stress responses.Plant Physiol.1821613–1623. 10.1104/pp.19.01214
13
GoodsteinD. M.ShuS.HowsonR.NeupaneR.HayesR. D.FazoJ.et al (2012). Phytozome: a comparative platform for green plant genomics.Nucleic Acids Res.40, D1178–1186. 10.1093/nar/gkr944
14
HachezC.VeljanovskiV.ReinhardtH.GuillaumotD.VanheeC.ChaumontF.et al (2014). The Arabidopsis abiotic stress-induced TSPO-related protein reduces cell-surface expression of the aquaporin PIP2;7 through protein-protein interactions and autophagic degradation.Plant Cell264974–4990. 10.1105/tpc.114.134080
15
HartmanS.SasidharanR.VoesenekL. (2019). The role of ethylene in metabolic acclimations to low oxygen.New Phytol.10.1111/nph.16378[Epub ahead of print].
16
HildebrandtT. M.Nunes NesiA.AraujoW. L.BraunH. P. (2015). Amino acid catabolism in plants.Mol. Plant81563–1579. 10.1016/j.molp.2015.09.005
17
HonigA.Avin-WittenbergT.UfazS.GaliliG. (2012). A new type of compartment, defined by plant-specific atg8-interacting proteins, is induced upon exposure of Arabidopsis Plants to carbon starvation.Plant Cell24288–303. 10.1105/tpc.111.093112
18
HuangX.ZhengC.LiuF.YangC.ZhengP.LuX.et al (2019). Genetic analyses of the Arabidopsis ATG1 kinase complex reveal both kinase-dependent and independent autophagic routes during fixed-carbon starvation.Plant Cell31:2973. 10.1105/tpc.19.00066
19
KellnerR.De La ConcepcionJ. C.MaqboolA.KamounS.DagdasY. F. (2017). ATG8 Expansion: a driver of selective autophagy diversification?Trends Plant Sci.22204–214. 10.1016/j.tplants.2016.11.015
20
KirisakoT.IchimuraY.OkadaH.KabeyaY.MizushimaN.YoshimoriT.et al (2000). The reversible modification regulates the membrane-binding state of Apg8/Aut7 essential for autophagy and the cytoplasm to vacuole targeting pathway.J. Cell Biol.151263–276. 10.1083/jcb.151.2.263
21
KumarS.StecherG.LiM.KnyazC.TamuraK. (2018). MEGA X: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis across computing platforms.Mol. Biol. Evol.351547–1549. 10.1093/molbev/msy096
22
KurusuT.KoyanoT.KitahataN.KojimaM.HanamataS.SakakibaraH.et al (2017). Autophagy-mediated regulation of phytohormone metabolism during rice anther development.Plant Signal. Behav.12:e1365211. 10.1080/15592324.2017.1365211
23
LearyA. Y.SavageZ.TumtasY.BozkurtT. O. (2019). Contrasting and emerging roles of autophagy in plant immunity.Curr. Opin. Plant Biol.5246–53. 10.1016/j.pbi.2019.07.002
24
LiB.LiuG.WangY.WeiY.ShiH. (2019). Overexpression of banana ATG8f modulates drought stress resistance in Arabidopsis.Biomolecules9:814. 10.3390/biom9120814
25
LiF.VierstraR. D. (2012). Autophagy: a multifaceted intracellular system for bulk and selective recycling.Trends Plant Sci.17526–537. 10.1016/j.tplants.2012.05.006
26
LiM. W.AuyeungW. K.LamH. M. (2013). The GCN2 homologue in Arabidopsis thaliana interacts with uncharged tRNA and uses Arabidopsis eIF2α molecules as direct substrates.Plant Biol.1513–18. 10.1111/j.1438-8677.2012.00606.x
27
LiuL.SonbolF. M.HuotB.GuY.WithersJ.MwimbaM.et al (2016). Salicylic acid receptors activate jasmonic acid signalling through a non-canonical pathway to promote effector-triggered immunity.Nat. Commun.7:13099. 10.1038/ncomms13099
28
LiuY.BasshamD. C. (2010). TOR is a negative regulator of autophagy in Arabidopsis thaliana.PLoS One5:e11883. 10.1371/journal.pone.0011883
29
LiuY.BasshamD. C. (2012). Autophagy: pathways for self-eating in plant cells.Annu. Rev. Plant Biol.63215–237. 10.1146/annurev-arplant-042811-105441
30
LuK.WeiL.LiX.WangY.WuJ.LiuM.et al (2019). Whole-genome resequencing reveals Brassica napus origin and genetic loci involved in its improvement.Nat. Commun.10:1154. 10.1038/s41467-019-09134-9
31
LuoL.ZhangP.ZhuR.FuJ.SuJ.ZhengJ.et al (2017). Autophagy is rapidly induced by salt stress and is required for salt tolerance in Arabidopsis.Front. Plant Sci8:1459. 10.3389/fpls.2017.01459
32
ManciasJ. D.Pontano VaitesL.NissimS.BiancurD. E.KimA. J.WangX.et al (2015). Ferritinophagy via NCOA4 is required for erythropoiesis and is regulated by iron dependent HERC2-mediated proteolysis.Elife4:e10308. 10.7554/eLife.10308.014
33
ManciasJ. D.WangX.GygiS. P.HarperJ. W.KimmelmanA. C. (2014). Quantitative proteomics identifies NCOA4 as the cargo receptor mediating ferritinophagy.Nature509105–109. 10.1038/nature13148
34
MarshallR. S.HuaZ.MaliS.McloughlinF.VierstraR. D. (2019). ATG8-Binding UIM proteins define a new class of autophagy adaptors and receptors.Cell177766–781.e24. 10.1016/j.cell.2019.02.009
35
MarshallR. S.LiF.GemperlineD. C.BookA. J.VierstraR. D. (2015). Autophagic degradation of the 26S proteasome is mediated by the dual ATG8/Ubiquitin receptor RPN10 in Arabidopsis.Mol. Cell581053–1066. 10.1016/j.molcel.2015.04.023
36
MarshallR. S.VierstraR. D. (2018). Autophagy: the master of bulk and selective recycling.Annu. Rev. Plant Biol.69173–208. 10.1146/annurev-arplant-042817-040606
37
Masclaux-DaubresseC.ChenQ.HavéM. (2017). Regulation of nutrient recycling via autophagy.Curr. Opin. Plant Biol.39, 8–17. 10.1016/j.pbi.2017.05.001
38
MeijerA. J.LorinS.BlommaartE. F.CodognoP. (2015). Regulation of autophagy by amino acids and MTOR-dependent signal transduction.Amino Acids47, 2037–2063. 10.1007/s00726-014-1765-4
39
MergnerJ.FrejnoM.ListM.PapacekM.ChenX.ChaudharyA.et al (2020). Mass-spectrometry-based draft of the Arabidopsis proteome.Nature579409–414. 10.1038/s41586-020-2094-2
40
MichaeliS.HonigA.LevanonyH.Peled-ZehaviH.GaliliG. (2014). Arabidopsis ATG8-INTERACTING PROTEIN1 is involved in autophagy-dependent vesicular trafficking of plastid proteins to the vacuole.Plant Cell264084–4101. 10.1105/tpc.114.129999
41
NaumannC.MüllerJ.SakhonwaseeS.WieghausA.HauseG.HeistersM.et al (2019). The local phosphate deficiency response activates endoplasmic reticulum stress-dependent autophagy.Plant Physiol.179:460. 10.1104/pp.18.01379
42
NeiM.KumarS. (2000). Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
43
NodaT.MatsuuraA.WadaY.OhsumiY. (1995). Novel system for monitoring autophagy in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun.210126–132. 10.1006/bbrc.1995.1636
44
NolanT. M.BrennanB.YangM.ChenJ.ZhangM.LiZ.et al (2017). Selective autophagy of BES1 mediated by DSK2 balances plant growth and survival.Dev. Cell4133–46.e7. 10.1016/j.devcel.2017.03.013
45
NorizukiT.MinaminoN.UedaT. (2020). Role of autophagy in male reproductive processes in land plants.Front. Plant Sci.11:756. 10.3389/fpls.2020.00756
46
OhsumiY. (2001). Molecular dissection of autophagy: two ubiquitin-like systems.Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol.2211–216. 10.1038/35056522
47
OkudaM.NangM. P.OshimaK.IshibashiY.ZhengS. H.YuasaT.et al (2011). The ethylene signal mediates induction of GmATG8i in soybean plants under starvation stress.Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem.751408–1412. 10.1271/bbb.110086
48
Pérez-PérezM. E.CousoI.CrespoJ. L. (2012). Carotenoid deficiency triggers autophagy in the model green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.Autophagy8, 376–388. 10.4161/auto.18864
49
Pérez-PérezM. E.LemaireS. D.CrespoJ. L. (2016). Control of autophagy in chlamydomonas is mediated through redox-dependent inactivation of the ATG4 protease.Plant Physiol.1722219–2234. 10.1104/pp.16.01582
50
PottierM.DumontJ.Masclaux-DaubresseC.ThomineS. (2018). Autophagy is essential for optimal translocation of iron to seeds in Arabidopsis.J. Exp. Botany70859–869. 10.1093/jxb/ery388
51
ProostS.Van BelM.SterckL.BilliauK.Van ParysT.Van De PeerY.et al (2009). PLAZA: a comparative genomics resource to study gene and genome evolution in plants.Plant Cell21, 3718–3731. 10.1105/tpc.109.071506
52
PuY.LuoX.BasshamD. C. (2017). TOR-dependent and -independent pathways regulate autophagy in Arabidopsis thaliana.Front. Plant Sci.8:1204. 10.3389/fpls.2017.01204
53
SchepetilnikovM.MakarianJ.SrourO.GeldreichA.YangZ.ChicherJ.et al (2017). GTPase ROP2 binds and promotes activation of target of rapamycin, TOR, in response to auxin.EMBO J.36886–903. 10.15252/embj.201694816
54
SeoE.WooJ.ParkE.BertolaniS. J.SiegelJ. B.ChoiD.et al (2016). Comparative analyses of ubiquitin-like ATG8 and cysteine protease ATG4 autophagy genes in the plant lineage and cross-kingdom processing of ATG8 by ATG4.Autophagy122054–2068. 10.1080/15548627.2016.1217373
55
SeraY.HanamataS.SakamotoS.OnoS.KanekoK.MitsuiY.et al (2019). Essential roles of autophagy in metabolic regulation in endosperm development during rice seed maturation.Sci. Rep.9:18544. 10.1038/s41598-019-54361-1
56
ShiL.WuY.SheenJ. (2018). TOR signaling in plants: conservation and innovation.Development145:dev160887. 10.1242/dev.160887
57
ShinozakiD.MerkulovaE. A.NayaL.HorieT.KannoY.SeoM.et al (2020). Autophagy increases Zinc bioavailability to avoid light-mediated reactive oxygen species production under Zinc deficiency.Plant Physiol.1821284–1296. 10.1104/pp.19.01522
58
StecherG.TamuraK.KumarS. (2020). Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis (MEGA) for macOS.Mol. Biol. Evol.371237–1239. 10.1093/molbev/msz312
59
SuttangkakulA.LiF.ChungT.VierstraR. D. (2011). The ATG1/ATG13 protein kinase complex is both a regulator and a target of autophagic recycling in Arabidopsis.Plant Cell233761–3779. 10.1105/tpc.111.090993
60
TsukadaM.OhsumiY. (1993). Isolation and characterization of autophagy-defective mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.FEBS Lett.333169–174. 10.1016/0014-5793(93)80398-E
61
ÜstünS.HafrénA.HofiusD. (2017). Autophagy as a mediator of life and death in plants.Curr. Opin. Plant Biol.40122–130. 10.1016/j.pbi.2017.08.011
62
Van LeeneJ.HanC.GadeyneA.EeckhoutD.MatthijsC.CannootB.et al (2019). Capturing the phosphorylation and protein interaction landscape of the plant TOR kinase.Nat. Plants5316–327. 10.1038/s41477-019-0378-z
63
VanheeC.ZapotocznyG.MasquelierD.GhislainM.BatokoH. (2011). The Arabidopsis multistress regulator TSPO is a heme binding membrane protein and a potential scavenger of porphyrins via an autophagy-dependent degradation mechanism.Plant Cell23785–805. 10.1105/tpc.110.081570
64
WangP.NolanT. M.YinY.BasshamD. C. (2019). Identification of transcription factors that regulate ATG8 expression and autophagy in Arabidopsis.Autophagy16123–139. 10.1080/15548627.2019.1598753
65
WangP.ZhaoY.LiZ.HsuC.-C.LiuX.FuL.et al (2018). Reciprocal regulation of the TOR kinase and ABA receptor balances plant growth and stress response.Mol. Cell69100–112.e6. 10.1016/j.molcel.2017.12.002
66
WenX.KlionskyD. J. (2016). The proteasome subunit RPN10 functions as a specific receptor for degradation of the 26S proteasome by macroautophagy in Arabidopsis.Autophagy12905–906. 10.1080/15548627.2016.1171949
67
WooJ.ParkE.Dinesh-KumarS. P. (2014). Differential processing of Arabidopsis ubiquitin-like Atg8 autophagy proteins by Atg4 cysteine proteases.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.111863–868. 10.1073/pnas.1318207111
68
XiaT.XiaoD.LiuD.ChaiW.GongQ.WangN. N. (2012). Heterologous expression of ATG8c from soybean confers tolerance to nitrogen deficiency and increases yield in Arabidopsis.PLoS One7:e37217. 10.1371/journal.pone.0037217
69
YangF.KimberlinA. N.ElowskyC. G.LiuY.Gonzalez-SolisA.CahoonE. B.et al (2019). A plant immune receptor degraded by selective autophagy.Mol. Plant12113–123. 10.1016/j.molp.2018.11.011
70
YoshimotoK.JikumaruY.KamiyaY.KusanoM.ConsonniC.PanstrugaR.et al (2009). Autophagy negatively regulates cell death by controlling NPR1-dependent salicylic acid signaling during senescence and the innate immune response in Arabidopsis.Plant Cell212914–2927. 10.1105/tpc.109.068635
71
YoshimotoK.OhsumiY. (2018). Unveiling the molecular mechanisms of plant autophagy-from autophagosomes to vacuoles in plants.Plant Cell Physiol.591337–1344. 10.1093/pcp/pcy112
72
ZhanN.WangC.ChenL.YangH.FengJ.GongX.et al (2018). S-nitrosylation targets GSNO reductase for selective autophagy during hypoxia responses in plants.Mol. Cell71142–154.e6. 10.1016/j.molcel.2018.05.024
73
ZhangZ.ZhuJ. Y.RohJ.MarchiveC.KimS. K.MeyerC.et al (2016). TOR signaling promotes accumulation of BZR1 to balance growth with carbon availability in Arabidopsis.Curr. Biol.261854–1860. 10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.005
74
ZhouJ.WangJ.ChengY.ChiY. J.FanB.YuJ. Q.et al (2013). NBR1-mediated selective autophagy targets insoluble ubiquitinated protein aggregates in plant stress responses.PLoS Genet.9:e1003196. 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003196
75
ZhuT.ZouL.LiY.YaoX.XuF.DengX.et al (2018). Mitochondrial alternative oxidase-dependent autophagy involved in ethylene-mediated drought tolerance in Solanum lycopersicum.Plant Biotechnol. J.162063–2076. 10.1111/pbi.12939
Summary
Keywords
plant autophagy, adaptation mechanism, recycling, abiotic stress, regulator, regulation target
Citation
Boycheva Woltering S and Isono E (2020) Knowing When to Self-Eat – Fine-Tuning Autophagy Through ATG8 Iso-forms in Plants. Front. Plant Sci. 11:579875. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.579875
Received
03 July 2020
Accepted
30 September 2020
Published
03 November 2020
Volume
11 - 2020
Edited by
Kendal Hirschi, Baylor College of Medicine, United States
Reviewed by
Ping Wang, Iowa State University, United States; Toshiro Shigaki, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Updates

Check for updates
Copyright
© 2020 Boycheva Woltering and Isono.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Svetlana Boycheva Woltering, svetlana.boycheva-woltering@uni-konstanz.de
This article was submitted to Plant Membrane Traffic and Transport, a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.