Activation of Autophagy by Metals in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Abstract

Autophagy is an intracellular self-degradation pathway by which eukaryotic cells recycle their own material in response to specific stress conditions. Exposure to high concentrations of metals causes cell damage, although the effect of metal stress on autophagy has not been explored in photosynthetic organisms. In this study, we investigated the effect of metal excess on autophagy in the model unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We show in cells treated with nickel an upregulation of ATG8 that is independent of CRR1, a global regulator of copper signaling in Chlamydomonas. A similar effect on ATG8 was observed with copper and cobalt but not with cadmium or mercury ions. Transcriptome sequencing data revealed an increase in the abundance of the protein degradation machinery, including that responsible for autophagy, and a substantial overlap of that increased abundance with the hydrogen peroxide response in cells treated with nickel ions. Thus, our results indicate that metal stress triggers autophagy in Chlamydomonas and suggest that excess nickel may cause oxidative damage, which in turn activates degradative pathways, including autophagy, to clear impaired components and recover cellular homeostasis. Eukaryotic cells are able to degrade and recycle their own material when they are exposed to nutrient starvation or other adverse conditions through a catabolic pathway known as macroautophagy or autophagy. This process is characterized by the formation of double-membrane vesicles termed autophagosomes that engulf and deliver cytosolic components to the vacuole/lysosome for degradation (1-4). The primary function of autophagy is to recycle cytoplasmic material as well as to clear damaged organelles or toxic cellular components generated during stress in order to maintain cellular homeostasis. In higher eukaryotes, autophagy has also been implicated in cell differentiation, development and cell death, and several human pathologies, such as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases (5, 6).Autophagy is mediated by highly conserved autophagy-related (ATG) genes, which have been described in organisms ranging from yeasts to mammals. Some ATG proteins are required for the formation of the autophagosome and constitute the core autophagy machinery (4,7,8). This group of proteins includes the ATG8 and ATG12 ubiquitin-like systems required for vesicle expansion. The ATG8 protein has been widely used to monitor autophagy in many systems (9) because, unlike other ATG proteins, this protein firmly binds to the autophagosome membrane through a covalent bond to phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). Most of the core ATG proteins are conserved in land plants (10-12) and in evolutionarily distant algae, including freshwater species, such as the model green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (herein referred to as Chlamydomonas) (13) and marine species (14). Our current knowledge about autophagy in algae is still limited compared to our knowledge about autophagy in other eukaryotes, but recent studies, mainly performed in Chlamydomon...

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