Crossing paths: recent insights in the interplay between autophagy and intracellular trafficking in plants

Abstract

Autophagy fulfills a crucial role in plant cellular homeostasis by recycling diverse cellular components ranging from protein complexes to whole organelles. Autophagy cargos are shuttled to the vacuole for degradation, thereby completing the recycling process. Canonical autophagy requires the lipidation and insertion of ATG8 proteins into double-membrane structures, termed autophagosomes, which engulf the cargo to be degraded. As such, the autophagy pathway actively contributes to intracellular membrane trafficking. Yet, the autophagic process is not fully considered a bona fide component of the canonical membrane trafficking pathway. However, recent findings have started to pinpoint the interconnection between classical membrane trafficking pathways and autophagy. This review details the latest advances in our comprehension of the interplay between these two pathways. Understanding the overlap between autophagy and canonical membrane trafficking pathways is important to illuminate the inner workings of both pathways in plant cells.

Plant autophagy and intracellular trafficking

“…Ust€ un [22] on the overlap between autophagy and canonical vesicle transport pathways. They discuss the relationship between autophagy and the ER, which provides a membrane source for autophagosome formation and is itself degraded by autophagy, and the way in which Golgi and post-Golgi trafficking components are involved in autophagy.…”

“…While autophagy and vesicle trafficking are often considered separately, there are numerous connections between the processes, as might be expected for pathways involving vesicle formation and membrane transport. The final set of articles included in this Special Issue provides insight into these interactions, beginning with the review by Gouguet and Üstün [22] on the overlap between autophagy and canonical vesicle transport pathways. They discuss the relationship between autophagy and the ER, which provides a membrane source for autophagosome formation and is itself degraded by autophagy, and the way in which Golgi and post‐Golgi trafficking components are involved in autophagy.…”