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In Vitro and In Vivo Detection of Mitophagy in Human Cells, C. Elegans, and Mice
Published on: November 22, 2017
Microautophagy in Plants: Consideration of Its Molecular Mechanism
Katarzyna Sieńko1, Andisheh Poormassalehgoo1, Kenji Yamada1
1Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, 30-387 Krakow, Poland.
Abstract:
Microautophagy is a type of autophagy. It is characterized by direct enclosing with the vacuolar/lysosomal membrane, which completes the isolation and uptake of cell components in the vacuole. Several publications present evidence that plants exhibit microautophagy. Plant microautophagy is involved in anthocyanin accumulation in the vacuole, eliminating damaged chloroplasts and degrading cellular components during starvation. However, information on the molecular mechanism of microautophagy is less available than that on the general macroautophagy, because the research focusing on microautophagy has not been widely reported. In yeast and animals, it is suggested that microautophagy can be classified into several types depending on morphology and the requirements of autophagy-related (ATG) genes. This review summarizes the studies on plant microautophagy and discusses possible techniques for a future study in this field while taking into account the information on microautophagy obtained from yeast and animals.
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