Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan.
Nat Cell Biol. 2010 Sep;12(9):823-30. doi: 10.1038/ncb0910-823.
It has been known for many decades that autophagy, a conserved lysosomal degradation pathway, is highly active during differentiation and development. However, until the discovery of the autophagy-related (ATG) genes in the 1990s, the functional significance of this activity was unknown. Initially, genetic knockout studies of ATG genes in lower eukaryotes revealed an essential role for the autophagy pathway in differentiation and development. In recent years, the analyses of systemic and tissue-specific knockout models of ATG genes in mice has led to an explosion of knowledge about the functions of autophagy in mammalian development and differentiation. Here we review the main advances in our understanding of these functions.
几十年来,人们已经知道自噬是一种保守的溶酶体降解途径,在分化和发育过程中高度活跃。然而,直到上世纪 90 年代发现自噬相关(ATG)基因,这种活性的功能意义才不为人知。最初,在较低等真核生物中对 ATG 基因的遗传敲除研究揭示了自噬途径在分化和发育中的关键作用。近年来,对 ATG 基因在小鼠中的全身性和组织特异性敲除模型的分析,导致了人们对自噬在哺乳动物发育和分化中的功能有了大量的了解。在这里,我们回顾了我们对这些功能的理解的主要进展。