TY  - GEN
T1  - The autophagy gene product BEC-1 supports normal aging and neurodevelopment in Caenorhabditis elegans II
AU  - Ashley, Nicholas
AU  - Holgado, Andrea M
DO  - 10.17912/micropub.biology.000100
UR  - http://beta.micropublication.org/journals/biology/micropub-biology-000100/
AB  - Macroautophagy (hereon referred as Autophagy) is a cellular housekeeping mechanism that uses a double membrane to target and engulf cell products forthe formation of autophagosomes. These double membrane organelles then fuse to lysosomes where cell products aredegraded and recycled (Nakamura and Yoshimori, 2018). The loss of autophagy function in the motor cortex has been associated with progression of neurodegenerative symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (Kaila and Lang 2015; Fahn et al. 2004). To better understand the role of Beclin 1 and autophagy in neurons, we studied locomotion in C. elegans mutants for bec-1. Locomotion in both homozygous (bec-1 -/-) and heterozygous bec-1(ok691) (bec-1 +/-) mutants showed significant defects (Figure 1). Homozygous bec-1(ok691) mutants backwards locomotion rates ranged between 3-8 body bends/minute at ages 1-7 days of adulthood and heterozygous bec-1(ok691) mutants were 6-9 body bends/minute at comparable ages. These defects in locomotion suggest a role of autophagy controlling behaviors that are neuronal dependent. 
PY  - 2019
JO  - microPublication Biology
ER  -