Chaperone-mediated autophagy protects against hyperglycemic stress.

Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) is a major pathway of lysosomal proteolysis critical for cellular homeostasis and metabolism, and whose defects have been associated with several human pathologies. While CMA has been well described in mammals, functional evidence has only recently been documented in fish, opening up new perspectives to tackle this function under a novel angle. Now we propose to explore CMA functions in the rainbow trout (RT, ), a fish species recognized as a model organism of glucose intolerance and characterized by the presence of two paralogs of the CMA-limiting factor Lamp2A (lysosomal associated membrane protein 2A).

Diving into the Evolutionary History of HSC70-Linked Selective Autophagy Pathways: Endosomal Microautophagy and Chaperone-Mediated Autophagy.

Autophagy is a pleiotropic and evolutionarily conserved process in eukaryotes that encompasses different types of mechanisms by which cells deliver cytoplasmic constituents to the lysosome for degradation. Interestingly, in mammals, two different and specialized autophagic pathways, (i) the chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) and (ii) the endosomal microautophagy (eMI), both rely on the use of the same cytosolic chaperone HSPA8 (also known as HSC70) for targeting specific substrates to the lysosome. However, this is not true for all organisms, and differences exist between species with respect to the coexistence of these two autophagic routes.