AUTHOR=Nicolas Valérie , Lievin-Le Moal Vanessa 

TITLE=Small Trafficking Inhibitor Retro-2 Disrupts the Microtubule-Dependent Trafficking of Autophagic Vacuoles

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cell-and-developmental-biology/articles/10.3389/fcell.2020.00464

DOI=10.3389/fcell.2020.00464

ISSN=2296-634X

ABSTRACT=<p>Autophagy is a catabolic recycling process by which a cell degrades its own constituents to contribute to cell homeostasis or survival. We report that the small trafficking inhibitor Retro-2 impairs microtubule-dependent vacuolar trafficking in autophagy. Retro-2 induced autophagy and promoted the dramatic cytoplasmic accumulation of large autophagosomes. Moreover, Retro-2 decreased the spreading of autophagosomes within the cytoplasm of nutrient-starved cells. In addition, Retro-2 abolished autolysosomes formation. We show that these effects arise from hitherto unsuspected disassembly activity of the small molecule on the cellular microtubule network, which is known to act as a key regulator of vacuolar trafficking of the autophagy pathway.</p>