细胞自噬及真菌中自噬研究概述

细胞自噬是真核生物中广泛存在的、主要依赖于溶酶体或液泡的保守的降解途径,通过降解细胞内过多或异常的蛋白、细胞器等以维持正常的细胞功能。近10年来自噬研究方面的飞速进展显示出自噬与癌症、神经退行性疾病、衰老及心脏病等人类疾病相关。与此同时,自噬在丝状真菌的生长、形态和发育等方面发挥着重要作用,特别是在丝状真菌的细胞分化过程中,自噬起到了关键性作用,如致病性生长、程序性细胞死亡及孢子形成。本文主要论述了什么是自噬,自噬的检测方法及以真菌为对象的自噬研究进展。

Overview of autophagy and related research in fungi

Autophagy is a universal lysosomal degradation pathway in eukaryotic cells, and it plays an important role in maintaining normal cell functions by degrading excess or abnormal intracellular proteins, organelles, etc. During the past decade, the rapid progress of research in the field revealed that autophagy principally serves an adaptive role in diverse pathologies, including cancer, neurodegeneration, aging, and heart diseases. Moreover, autophagy also plays an essential role in filamentous fungi during growth, morphology, and development. Importantly, autophagy functions as a key factor during differentiation, such as pathogenic development, programmed cell death, and spore formation. This review focuses on nomenclature and detection of autophagy, and gives a glimpse on related studies about autophagy in fungi.