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Updated: Jan 4, 2026

Protein Extract Preparation and Co-immunoprecipitation from Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: May 23, 2020
Identification of an AGO (Argonaute) protein as a prey of TER94/VCP
Hotaka Kobayashi1, Yukihide Tomari1,2
1Laboratory of RNA Function, Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract:
VCP (valosin containing protein) recognizes a wide variety of substrates and mediates their degradation via the ubiquitin-proteasome system and macroautophagy/autophagy. The substrate repertoire of VCP, however, is not fully understood. In our recent study, we found that Drosophila TER94/VCP mediates autophagic degradation of an Argonaute subfamily protein (AGO1), which binds microRNAs (miRNAs) and silences the expression of thousands of target genes. In the absence of TER94/VCP, miRNA-mediated gene silencing is globally impaired. Our findings reveal an unexpected connection between VCP and AGO, which may dramatically expand the biological significance of VCP.
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