Autophagic cell death is dependent on lysosomal membrane permeability through Bax and Bak
- University of Cincinnati, United States
Abstract
Cells deficient in the pro-death Bcl-2 family members Bax and Bak are known to be resistant to apoptotic cell death, and in a previous eLIFE paper, Karch et al., 2013 showed that these 2 effectors are also needed for mitochondrial-dependent cellular necrosis. Here we show that mouse embryonic fibroblasts deficient in Bax/Bak1 are resistant to the third major form of cell death associated with autophagy through a mechanism involving lysosome permeability. Indeed, specifically targeting Bax only to the lysosome restores autophagic cell death in Bax/Bak1 null cells. Moreover, a monomeric-only mutant form of Bax is sufficient to increase lysosomal membrane permeability and restore autophagic cell death in Bax/Bak1 double-deleted mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Finally, increasing lysosomal permeability through a lysomotropic detergent in cells devoid of Bax/Bak1 restores autophagic cell death, collectively indicting that Bax/Bak integrate all major forms of cell death through direct effects on membrane permeability of multiple intracellular organelles.
Article and author information
Author details
Jeffery D Molkentin
Funding
National Institutes of Health (R01HL132831)
- Jeffery D Molkentin
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Molkentin)
- Jeffery D Molkentin
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2017, Karch et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 5,194
- views
-
- 857
- downloads
-
- 69
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Autophagic cell death is dependent on lysosomal membrane permeability through Bax and Bak
eLife 6:e30543.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.30543
Further reading
-
- Developmental Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
New developmental programs can evolve through adaptive changes to gene expression. The annelid Streblospio benedicti has a developmental dimorphism, which provides a unique intraspecific framework for understanding the earliest genetic changes that take place during developmental divergence. Using comparative RNAseq through ontogeny, we find that only a small proportion of genes are differentially expressed at any time, despite major differences in larval development and life history. These genes shift expression profiles across morphs by either turning off any expression in one morph or changing the timing or amount of gene expression. We directly connect the contributions of these mechanisms to differences in developmental processes. We examine F1 offspring – using reciprocal crosses – to determine maternal mRNA inheritance and the regulatory architecture of gene expression. These results highlight the importance of both novel gene expression and heterochronic shifts in developmental evolution, as well as the trans-acting regulatory factors in initiating divergence.
-
- Cell Biology
- Developmental Biology
The formation of large endolysosomal structures in unfertilized eggs ensures that lysosomes remain dormant before fertilization, and then shift into clean-up mode after the egg-to-embryo transition.
