Membrane curvature-generating proteins crucial for autophagosome formation

Autophagy is essential for cellular homeostasis and begins with the formation of a phagophore, a cup-like membrane sheet consisting of two closely apposed lipid bilayers connected by a highly curved rim. How the membrane sheet forms, bends, and eventually generates an autophagosome that enwraps cargo remains enigmatic. Specifically, it is unclear how the high membrane curvature of the phagophore rim, an energetically unfavorable state, is stabilized. Here, we demonstrate that phagophore formation requires the conserved, membrane curvature-generating REEP1 proteins. The REEP1 family proteins (REEP1-4 in vertebrates) differ from the related endoplasmic reticulum-shaping REEPs in abundance and membrane topology. In fission yeast, the single REEP1 ortholog is involved in both bulk and selective autophagy. It is recruited at early stages of phagophore formation and required for their maturation into autophagosomes. The function of REEP1 relies on its ability to generate high membrane curvature and its localization to the phagophore rim. Mammalian REEP1 proteins also associate with phagophores upon induction of autophagy and colocalize with early autophagic markers. We propose that REEP1 proteins stabilize the phagophores highly curved rim so that the two membrane sheets are kept in close proximity to form the autophagosome. Defective autophagy may underlie the effect of curvature-compromising mutations in human REEP1 proteins linked to neurological disease.