A Novel Crosstalk Between Autophagosomes and Phagosomes That Facilitates the Clearance of Apoptotic Cells

Authors

Zheng Zhou
Omar Peña-Ramos

Publication Date

6-1-2022

Journal

Autophagy

DOI

10.1080/15548627.2022.2080384

PMID

35604109

PMCID

PMC9225299

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

5-29-2022

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Animals, Apoptosis, Autophagosomes, Autophagy, Lysosomes, Phagosomes, autophagosomes, C. elegans, CED-1, crosstalk, degradation of apoptotic cells, LGG-1/LGG-2, membrane fusion, membrane signaling, phagocytosis, phagosomes

Abstract

During an animal's life, many cells undergo apoptosis, a form of genetically programmed cell death. These cells are swiftly engulfed by other cells through phagocytosis and subsequently degraded inside phagosomes. Phagocytosis and macroautophagy/autophagy are two different cellular events: whereas phagocytosis is a cell-eat-cell event, autophagy, or "self-eating", occurs within one cell, resulting in the enveloping of protein aggregates or damaged organelles within double-membrane autophagosomes. Despite this critical difference, these two events share common features: (1) both are means of safe garbage disposal; (2) both phagosomes and autophagosomes fuse to lysosomes, which drive the degradation of their contents; and (3) both events facilitate the recycling of biological materials. Previously, whether autophagosomes