Recently the team 1 showed in collaboration with team 6 and Thierry Capiod (team 4) that autophagy controls epithelial cell size/volume in the kidney proximal tubule. The fluid flow stimulates the induction of autophagy, a degradative mechanism for cytoplasmic material ending up into the lysosomal compartment, via the primary cilium-dependent inhibition of the kinase mTOR.
Figure: Increase in the autophagic flux in kidney epithelial cell expressing RFP-GFP-LC3 is detected by the accumulation of red dots (autolysosomes). Yellow dots represent nascent non acidified autophagic vacuoles (autophagosome).
Primary-cilium-dependent autophagy controls epithelial cell volume in response to fluid flow.
Orhon I*, Dupont N*, Zaidan M, Boitez V, Burtin M, Schmitt A, Capiod T, Viau A, Beau I, Kuehn E W , Friedlander G, Terzi F, Codogno P. 2016 Nat Cell Biol. 18:657-67.