Cross-species interactome analysis uncovers a conserved selective autophagy mechanism for protein quality control in plants

Selective autophagy is a fundamental protein quality control pathway that safeguards proteostasis by degrading damaged or surplus cellular components, particularly under stress. This process is orchestrated by selective autophagy receptors (SARs) that recruit specific cargo for degradation. Although significant strides have been made in understanding the molecular framework of selective autophagy, the diversity of SAR repertoires across species remains largely unexplored. Through a comparative interactome analysis across five model organisms, we identified a suite of conserved and lineage-specific SAR candidates. Among these, we validated coupling of ubiquitin to endoplasmic reticulum degradation- and protein rich in the amino acids E, L, K, and S-domain-containing SAR (CESAR) as a conserved SAR critical for proteostasis under heat stress. CESAR specifically facilitates the degradation of ubiquitinated protein aggregates and is indispensable for heat stress tolerance. Altogether, our study establishes a robust pipeline and a rich resource for SAR discovery. It also positions CESAR as a pivotal regulator of proteostasis, with broad implications for improving stress resilience in plants.

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Publication Details

Journal
Developmental Cell
Published
2025-12-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2025.11.001
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Autophagy in Disease and Therapy
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.35
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article

Cross-species interactome analysis uncovers a conserved selective autophagy mechanism for protein quality control in plants

Juncai Ma, Víctor Sánchez de Medina Hernández, Cheuk-Ling Wun, Nenad Grujic et al.
1 citations
Developmental Cell
Autophagy in Disease and Therapy
1.35
article

Cross-species interactome analysis uncovers a conserved selective autophagy mechanism for protein quality control in plants

Juncai Ma, Víctor Sánchez de Medina Hernández, Cheuk-Ling Wun, Nenad Grujic, Byung‐Ho Kang, Yasin Dagdas, Isabel Bäurle, Margot Raffeiner, Mateusz Matuszkiewicz, Jakob Valdbjørn Kanne, Şuayib Üstün, Anton Meinhart, Marion Clavel, A.T.J. Bianchi, Marta García-León, Alibek Abdrakhmanov, Roksolana Kobylinska, Juan Carlos De la Concepción, Veselin I. Andreev, Elisabeth Roitinger, Nils Leibrock, Luca Argirò, Varsha Mathur, Silvia Ramundo, Azadeh Mohseni, Ranjith K. Papareddy, Yogesh Kulathu, Gaurav Anand, Tim Crawford, Tim Clausen, Héloïse Duvergé, Lorenzo Picchianti, Morten Rønn Petersen, Peng Gao, Marintia M Nava-García, Lina Benchalel
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Selective autophagy is a fundamental protein quality control pathway that safeguards proteostasis by degrading damaged or surplus cellular components, particularly under stress. This process is orchestrated by selective autophagy receptors (SARs) that recruit specific cargo for degradation. Although significant strides have been made in understanding the molecular framework of selective autophagy, the diversity of SAR repertoires across species remains largely unexplored. Through a comparative interactome analysis across five model organisms, we identified a suite of conserved and lineage-specific SAR candidates. Among these, we validated coupling of ubiquitin to endoplasmic reticulum degradation- and protein rich in the amino acids E, L, K, and S-domain-containing SAR (CESAR) as a conserved SAR critical for proteostasis under heat stress. CESAR specifically facilitates the degradation of ubiquitinated protein aggregates and is indispensable for heat stress tolerance. Altogether, our study establishes a robust pipeline and a rich resource for SAR discovery. It also positions CESAR as a pivotal regulator of proteostasis, with broad implications for improving stress resilience in plants.

Developmental CellVol. 61(3)
University of Copenhagen (DK), Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (AT), Austrian Academy of Sciences (AT), Warsaw University of Life Sciences (PL), University of Potsdam (DE), University of Dundee (GB), Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK), Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (AT), Heidelberg University (DE), MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (GB), Vienna Biocenter (AT), Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Autophagy in Disease and Therapy
1.35
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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