Abstract
The lipid droplet (LD) is a unique organelle that stores lipids essential for cellular energy. We established a system for forced selective autophagy of LD (which we termed forced lipophagy) by designing a novel adaptor protein to connect the LD and autophagosome. We validated this system under physiological conditions, especially in fertilized mouse oocytes, because a number of LDs are stored in the oocyte cytoplasm. We showed that forced lipophagy efficiently reduces LD content throughout embryonic development, resulting in developmental retardation. Our study revealed that the proper amount of LD is required for embryo viability.
Representative images of mouse two-cell embryos (Right: control, Left: forced lipophagy-induced), labelled with LD-specific dye (Green) and observed by laser confocal fluorescence microscopy.
Reference
Forced lipophagy reveals that lipid droplets are required for early embryonic development in mouse.
Takayuki Tatsumi, Kaori Takayama, Shunsuke Ishii, Atsushi Yamamoto, Taichi Hara, Naojiro Minami, Naoyuki Miyasaka, Toshiro Kubota, Akira Matsuura, Eisuke Itakura, Satoshi Tsukamoto
Development 2018 145: dev161893, DOI: 10.1242/dev.161893
Contact
Satoshi Tsukamoto ( tsukamoto.satoshi=qst.go.jp ) ( replace "=" with "@" )
Laboratory Animal and Genome Sciences Section,
National Institute of Radiological Sciences, QST