Zhang Lab

Autophagy involves the enclosure of cytoplasmic material in the autophagosome and its subsequent delivery to the lysosome for degradation. Studies of autophagy in yeast have laid the groundwork for a molecular understanding of the autophagy pathway, but have failed to consider unique mechanisms that are specific for the regulation and function of autophagy in animals. The Zhang laboratory identified a set of metazoan specific autophagy genes, known as epg genes, using C. elegans as a genetic model. Research in the Zhang lab focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of these new genes in autophagy and how autophagy dysfunction leads to the development of neurodegeneration.

  • Zhang, Y.X., et al. (2009) SEPA-1 mediates the specific recognition and degradation of P granule components by autophagy in C. elegans. Cell 136, 308-321.
  • Tian, Y., et al. (2010) C. elegans screen identifies autophagy genes specific to multicellular organisms. Cell 141, 1042-1055.
  • Lu, Q., et al. (2011) The WD40 repeat PtdIns(3)P-binding protein EPG-6 regulates progression of omegasomes to autophagosomes. Developmental Cell 21, 343-357.
  • Zhao, H.Y., et al. (2013) Mice deficient in Epg5 exhibit selective neuronal vulnerability to degeneration. The Journal of Cell Biology 200, 731-741.
  • Li, S.H., et al. (2013) Arginine methylation modulates autophagic degradation of PGL granules in C. elegans. Molecular Cell 52, 421-433.
  • Guo, B., et al. (2014) O-GlcNAc-modification of SNAP-29 regulates autophagosome maturation. Nature Cell Biology 16, 1215-1226.
  • Wu, F., et al. (2015) Structural basis of the differential function of the two C. elegans Atg8 homologs, LGG-1 and LGG-2, in autophagy. Molecular Cell 60, 914-929.
  • Wang, Z., et al. (2016) The Vici syndrome protein EPG5 is a Rab7 effector that determines the fusion specificity of autophagosomes with late endosomes/lysosomes. Molecular Cell 63, 781-795.
  • Zhao, G.Y., et al. (2017) The ER-localized transmembrane protein VMP1 regulates SERCA activity to control ER-isolation membrane contacts for autophagosome formation. Molecular Cell 67, 974-989.