Study of Protein-protein Interactions in Autophagy Research

Protein-protein interactions are important for understanding cellular signaling cascades and identifying novel pathway components and protein dynamics. The majority of cellular activities require physical interactions between proteins. To analyze and map these interactions, various experimental techniques as well as bioinformatics tools were developed. Autophagy is a cellular recycling mechanism that allows the cells to cope with different stressors, including nutrient deprivation, chemicals, and hypoxia. In order to better understand autophagy-related signaling events and to discover novel factors that regulate protein complexes in autophagy, we performed protein-protein interaction screens. Validation of these screening results requires the use of immunofluorescence and immunoprecipitation techniques. In this system, specific autophagy-related protein-protein interactions that we discovered were tested in Neuro2A (N2A) and HEK293T cell lines. Details of the technical procedures used are explained in this visualized experiment paper.