SummaryMammalian cell homeostasis during starvation depends on initiation of autophagy by endoplasmic reticulum-localized phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns(3)P) synthesis. Formation of double-membrane autophagosomes that engulf cytosolic components requires the LC3-conjugating Atg12–5-16L1 complex. The molecular mechanisms of Atg12–5-16L1 recruitment and significance of PtdIns(3)P synthesis at autophagosome formation sites are unknown. By identifying interacting partners of WIPIs, WD-repeat PtdIns(3)P effector proteins, we found that Atg16L1 directly binds WIPI2b. Mutation experiments and ectopic localization of WIPI2b to plasma membrane show that WIPI2b is a PtdIns(3)P effector upstream of Atg16L1 and is required for LC3 conjugation and starvation-induced autophagy through recruitment of the Atg12–5-16L1 complex. Atg16L1 mutants, which do not bind WIPI2b but bind FIP200, cannot rescue starvation-induced autophagy in Atg16L1-deficient MEFs. WIPI2b is also required for autophagic clearance of pathogenic bacteria. WIPI2b binds the membrane surrounding Salmonella and recruits the Atg12–5-16L1 complex, initiating LC3 conjugation, autophagosomal membrane formation, and engulfment of Salmonella.

Mammalian Atg9 (mAtg9) is a multispanning membrane protein that resides in a novel compartment. mAtg9 interacts dynamically with phagophores and forming autophagosomes. It is proposed that mAtg9 function is required to initiate autophagosome formation and increase the number of autophagosomes.

The noncatalytic RabGAP protein TBC1D14 regulates the Rab11- and ULK1-positive recycling endosomes required for autophagosome formation upon starvation

In mammalian cells, epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulation promotes multivesicular body (MVB) formation and inward vesiculation within MVB. Annexin 1 is required for EGF-stimulated inward vesiculation but not MVB formation, demonstrating that MVB formation (the number of MVBs/unit cytoplasm) and inward vesiculation (the number of internal vesicles/MVB) are regulated by different mechanisms. Here, we show that EGF-stimulated MVB formation requires the tumor susceptibility gene, Tsg101, a component of the ESCRT (endosomal sorting complex required for transport) machinery. Depletion of Tsg101 potently inhibits EGF degradation and MVB formation and causes the vacuolar domains of the early endosome to tubulate. Although Tsg101 depletion inhibits MVB formation and alters the morphology of the early endosome in unstimulated cells, these effects are much greater after EGF stimulation. In contrast, depletion of hepatocyte growth factor receptor substrate (Hrs) only modestly inhibits EGF degradation, does not induce tubulation of the early endosome, and causes the generation of enlarged MVBs that retain the ability to fuse with the lysosome. Together, these results indicate that Tsg101 is required for the formation of stable vacuolar domains within the early endosome that develop into MVBs and Hrs is required for the accumulation of internal vesicles within MVBs and that both these processes are up-regulated by EGF stimulation.