Höfundar:
Clémence Larat, Margrét Helga Ögmundsdóttir
Autophagy is a cellular degradation process. It has been shown to be involved in cancer initiation and development, either in a tumour-suppressive or promotive manner. During previous studies, the lab identified the expression of two protein coding isoforms of the autophagy protein ATG7 across human tissues. Unlike the long isoform ATG7(1) which interacts with autophagy proteins, the short isoform ATG7(2) interacts with metabolic proteins involved in oncogenic pathways. Interestingly, the interactome analysis of ATG7(2) showed an interaction with the LIM protein AJUBA. AJUBA has been identified as a regulator of the Hippo pathway, which is involved in the secretion of many cytokines, and the expression of numerous genes, including CD274 which encodes the protein PD-L1. It has been established that the Hippo pathway is involved in tumour immunity, proliferation and metastasis. This project aims to cast light on the role of ATG7(2) in these cellular mechanisms.