Protein turnover can be achieved via the lysosome/vacuole and the autophagic degradation pathways. Evidence has accumulated revealing that efficient autophagic degradation requires functional endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery. However, the interplay between the ESCRT machinery and the autophagy regulator remains unclear. Here, we show that FYVE domain protein required for endosomal sorting 1 (FREE1), a recently identified plant-specific ESCRT component essential for multivesicular body (MVB) biogenesis and plant growth, plays roles both in vacuolar protein transport and autophagic degradation. FREE1 also regulates vacuole biogenesis in both seeds and vegetative cells of Arabidopsis. Additionally, FREE1 interacts directly with a unique plant autophagy regulator SH3 DOMAIN-CONTAINING PROTEIN2 and associates with the PI3K complex, to regulate the autophagic degradation in plants. Thus, FREE1 plays multiple functional roles in vacuolar protein trafficking and organelle biogenesis as well as in autophagic degradation via a previously unidentified regulatory mechanism of cross-talk between the ESCRT machinery and autophagy process. T he endosomal-lysosomal/vacuolar pathway is the primary catabolic system of eukaryotic cells that degrades extracellular and intracellular materials. Membrane proteins destined for degradation, such as misfolded proteins or endocytosed receptors, become tagged by ubiquitin for further sorting to the endosomal-lysosomal/vacuolar system for degradation (1). During this process, an evolutionarily conserved machinery called endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT), is responsible for sorting these ubiquitinated cargos into the intraluminal vesicles (ILVs) of prevacuolar compartments/multivesicular bodies (PVCs/MVBs), which subsequently fuse with vacuoles/lysosomes to deliver their contents into the lumen for proteolytic degradation (2, 3). Malfunction of the assembly or dissociation of the ESCRT machinery disrupts MVB formation and thus results in the accumulation of ubiquitinated membrane cargos (4, 5).Macroautophagy (hereafter as autophagy) is another highly conserved catabolic process, which converges on the endosomallysosomal/vacuolar pathway to deliver aberrant organelles, longlived proteins, and protein aggregates to the lysosome/vacuole via a unique structure termed the "autophagosome" (6). Morphologically different from MVBs, autophagosomes are characterized by a double membrane structure, which is initiated from the phagophore assembly site/preautophagosome site (PAS) (7). The proteins or organelles to be degraded are encapsulated by autophagosomes that fuse either directly with the vacuole/lysosome or with endosomes like MVBs for expansion/maturation to form amphisomes, which then fuse with vacuole/lysosome for degradation. A number of conserved autophagy-related gene (ATG) proteins have been identified as participating in the autophagy pathway in eukaryotic cells (8).Even though it is generally accepted that at least one population of...

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In eukaryotic cells, the endomembrane system consists of multiple membrane-bound organelles, which play essential roles in the precise transportation of various cargo proteins. In plant cells, vacuoles are regarded as the terminus of catabolic pathways whereas the selection and transport of vacuolar cargoes are mainly mediated by two types of organelles, multivesicular bodies (MVBs) also termed prevacuolar compartments (PVCs) and autophagosomes. MVBs are single-membrane bound organelles with intraluminal vesicles and mediate the transport between the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and vacuoles, while autophagosomes are double-membrane bound organelles, which mediate cargo delivery to the vacuole for degradation and recycling during autophagy. Great progress has been achieved recently in identification and characterization of the conserved and plant-unique regulators involved in the MVB and autophagosome pathways. In this review, we present an update on the current knowledge of these key regulators and pay special attention to their conserved protein domains. In addition, we discuss the possible interplay between the MVB and autophagosome pathways in regulating vacuolar degradation in plants.

The homotypic fusion and protein sorting (HOPS) complex is a conserved, multi-subunit tethering complex in eukaryotic cells. In yeast and mammalian cells, the HOPS subunit vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein 41 (VPS41) is recruited to late endosomes after Ras-related protein 7 (Rab7) activation and is essential for vacuole fusion. However, whether VPS41 plays conserved roles in plants is not clear. Here, we demonstrate that in the model plant Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), VPS41 localizes to distinct condensates in root cells in addition to its reported localization at the tonoplast. The formation of condensates does not rely on the known upstream regulators but depends on VPS41 self-interaction and is essential for vegetative growth regulation. Genetic evidence indicates that VPS41 is required for both homotypic vacuole fusion and cargo sorting from the AP-3, Rab5, and Golgi-independent pathways but is dispensable for the Rab7 cargo inositol transporter 1 (INT1). We also show that VPS41 has HOPS-independent functions in vacuolar transport. Taken together, our findings indicate that Arabidopsis VPS41 is a unique subunit of the HOPS complex that carries out plant-specific roles in both vacuolar transport and developmental regulation.

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