Lipophagy is the process of autophagic degradation of lipid droplets into fatty acids. Lipid droplets are coated with perilipin (PLIN) proteins and they need to be eliminated for the degradation of the lipids inside. Cytosolic Heat shock cognate 71 kDa protein (HSPA8) binds PLIN2 and PLIN3 on the lipid droplet surface. Subsequently, AMPK binds and phosphorylates perilipins targeting them for lipophagy (S Kaushik et al. 2015, S Kaushik et al. 2016). The precise phosphorylation site(s) on PLINs are unknown. Experiments confirming this finding were performed in mouse models.
Cuervo, AM, Kaushik, S
protein serine/threonine kinase activity of AMPK-alpha2:AMPK-beta:AMPK-gamma:AMP [cytosol]
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