Special delivery – lipid transport for autophagy

Building an autophagosome requires cells to rapidly assemble and expand membranes at the right place and time. In a new study published in Nature Communications, first author Elisabeth Holzer from the Martens lab found that the lipid composition of mammalian precursor membranes differ substantially from their yeast counterparts. The team identified the lipid transport protein ATG2A and ATG8-like proteins on the nascent phagophore membrane as key factors in delivering the phosphatidylinositol (PI) required to drive membrane biogenesis. By clarifying how autophagosome formation is controlled, the findings may help better understand how defects in autophagy contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.