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Updated: May 14, 2026

Study of Protein-protein Interactions in Autophagy Research
Published on: September 9, 2017
Ats-1: a novel bacterial molecule that links autophagy to bacterial nutrition
1Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
Abstract:
Obligatory intracellular life style and a small number of genes for biosynthesis and metabolism necessitate the Gram-negative bacterium, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, to depend on the host cell for nutrients. A. phagocytophilum resides in a membrane-bound inclusion, and secretes a protein, Ats-1 (Anaplasma translocated substrate-1), into the host cell cytoplasm. Ats-1 binds BECN1, a protein critical for autophagy nucleation, and induces autophagosome formation. The autophagosomes traffic to, and fuse with, A. phagocytophilum inclusions, delivering autophagic cargo into the inclusions, which can serve as nutrients for bacterial growth. This finding demonstrates that A. phagocytophilum subverts host cell autophagic machinery to facilitate infection by secreting a BECN1-binding molecule.
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