Autophagy is inhibited by ubiquitin ligase activity in the nervous system

Abstract

Despite growing interest in the role of autophagy in neurons, it remains unclear how this process is regulated, in particular, how autophagy is spatially restricted in subcellular compartments in neurons. In this study, the authors use an unbiased proteomic approach to show that the autophagy initiating kinase UNC-51/ULK and autophagosome formation are inhibited by the ubiquitin ligase RPM-1, and demonstrate that this interaction is within specific axonal compartments.