The subject of this research project is selective autophagy, a cellular clean-up and recycling process used by animals, plants and fungi to maintain cellular function. This project will improve America's competitiveness by contributing to the education of a diverse and technically literate workforce. It will create a research-rich learning environment for biochemistry students at Eastern Michigan University, a primarily undergraduate institution that serves a racially and socioeconomically diverse population of students. It will do this by supporting a cutting-edge research program that will directly engage ~10-12 undergraduate and Master's level students in mentored scientific research projects as well as creating semester-long guided research experiences for ~30-36 additional undergraduates as part of a research-based senior-level biochemistry lab. Multiple studies have shown that the most effective way for students to learn science is by participating in authentic scientific research. Therefore, this project will not only advance our fundamental understanding of the natural world but also train the next generation of scientists.
Selective autophagy targets damaged or unwanted cellular components, such as toxic protein aggregates or malfunctioning mitochondria, and delivers them to the vacuole/lysosome where they are destroyed and their constituents recycled. This research focuses on understanding the basic mechanisms of selective autophagy in the model organism baker's yeast. One of the key proteins that guides the process of selective autophagy is Atg11, which interacts with a number of other autophagy proteins and organizes them into a functional protein complex. This research will explain how Atg11 organizes this complex by determining the characteristics of Atg11's interactions with its protein partners. Specifically, it will determine whether Atg11can bring together all of its partners at once, in the manner of a scaffold, or whether it interacts with them one at a time, in the manner of an assembly line. This information will help us to understand how selective autophagy actually occurs, not only in yeast but also many other organisms that share a similar machinery, including humans.
