Publikationen - Molekulare Signalverarbeitung

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis  updated  guidelines  for  monitoring  autophagy  in  different  organisms.  Despite  numerous  reviews, there  continues  to  be  confusion  regarding  acceptable  methods  to  evaluate  autophagy,  especially  in multicellular  eukaryotes.  Here,  we  present  a  set  of  guidelines  for  investigators  to  select  and  interpret methods  to  examine  autophagy  and  related  processes,  and  for  reviewers  to  provide  realistic  and reasonable  critiques  of  reports  that  are  focused  on  these  processes.  These  guidelines  are  not  meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being  asked  and  the  system  being  used.  Moreover,  no  individual  assay  is  perfect  for  every situation, calling  for  the  use  of  multiple  techniques  to  properly  monitor  autophagy  in  each  experimental  setting. Finally,  several  core  components  of  the  autophagy  machinery  have  been  implicated  in  distinct  auto-phagic  processes  (canonical  and  noncanonical  autophagy),  implying  that  genetic  approaches  to  block autophagy  should  rely  on  targeting  two  or  more  autophagy-related  genes  that  ideally  participate  in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation  in  the  field.

The chemical composition of root exudates strongly impacts the interactions of plants with microorganisms in the rhizosphere and the efficiency of nutrient acquisition. Exudation of metabolites is in part mediated by ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters. In order to assess the contribution of individual ABC transporters to root exudation, we performed an LC-MS based non-targeted metabolite profiling of semi-polar metabolites accumulating in root exudates of Arabidopsis thaliana plants and mutants deficient in the expression of ABCG36 (PDR8/PEN3), ABCG37 (PDR9) or both transporters. Comparison of the metabolite profiles indicated distinct roles for each ABC transporter in root exudation. Thymidine exudation could be attributed to ABCG36 function, whereas coumarin exudation was strongly reduced only in ABCG37 deficient plants. However, coumarin exudation was compromised in abcg37 mutants only with respect to certain metabolites of this substance class. The specificity of ABCG37 for individual coumarins was further verified by a targeted LC-MS based coumarin profiling method. The response to iron deficiency, which is known to strongly induce coumarin exudation, was also investigated. In either treatment, the distribution of individual coumarins between roots and exudates in the investigated genotypes suggested the involvement of ABCG37 in the exudation specifically of highly oxygenated rather than monohydroxylated coumarins.

The mutation rates of viroids, plant pathogens with minimal non-protein-coding RNA genomes, are unknown. Their replication is mediated by host RNA polymerases and, in some cases, by hammerhead ribozymes, small self-cleaving motifs embedded in the viroid. By using the principle that the population frequency of nonviable genotypes equals the mutation rate, we screened for changes that inactivated the hammerheads of Chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle viroid. We obtained a mutation rate of 1/400 per site, the highest reported for any biological entity. Such error-prone replication can only be tolerated by extremely simple genomes such as those of viroids and, presumably, the primitive replicons of the RNA world. Our results suggest that the emergence of replication fidelity was critical for the evolution of complexity in the early history of life.