Dr. Lilin Du's group found new autophagy factors through global analysis of fission yeast mating genes.

    On August 8, 2013, Dr. Li-Lin Du's lab published an article titled "Global Analysis of Fission Yeast Mating Genes Reveals New Autophagy Factors" in PLOS Genetics.

    In this study, through screening the mating phenotype of a genome-wide deletion collection of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the authors obtained a comprehensive catalog of autophagy genes in this highly tractable organism, including genes encoding three heretofore unidentified core Atg proteins, Atg10, Atg14, and Atg16, and two novel factors, Ctl1 and Fsc1. The investigation of the two novel factors revealed unforeseen autophagy mechanisms. The multi-transmembrane protein Ctl1 interacts with Atg9 and influences the assembly of Atg proteins on the autophagic membrane. The vacuole membrane protein Fsc1 is required for autophagosome-vacuole fusion but not other vacuolar fusion events, suggesting a regulation of autophagic traffic at the target membrane. This study establishes the fission yeast as a useful model for dissecting the mechanisms of autophagy.

    The first author of the paper is Dr. Ling-Ling Sun from the Du lab. The other authors include Ming Li, Fang Suo,

Xiao-Man Liu, En-Zhi Shen, Bing Yang, Dr. Meng-Qiu Dong, and Dr. Wan-Zhong He. The corresponding author is

Dr. Lilin Du.