title: Atg7 in development and disease: panacea or Pandora's Box?
abstract: Macroautophagy is an evolutionarily conserved intracellular degradation system used by life ranging from yeasts to mammals. The core autophagic machinery is composed of ATG (autophagy-related) protein constituents. One particular member of the ATG protein family, Atg7, has been the focus of recent research. Atg7 acts as an E1-like activating enzyme facilitating both microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3)-phosphatidylethanolamine and ATG12 conjugation. Thus, Atg7 stands at the hub of these two ubiquitin-like systems involving LC3 and Atg12 in autophagic vesicle expansion. In this review, I focus on the pleiotropic function of Atg7 in development, maintenance of health, and alternations of such control in disease.
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular Medicine, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA. jianhua.xiong@nih.gov.
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004194:Disease; D048788:Growth and Development; D006801:Humans; D009928:Organ Specificity; D013045:Species Specificity; D044764:Ubiquitin-Activating Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D044764:Ubiquitin-Activating Enzymes
keywords: Atg7; autophagy; development; disease; mouse model