Abstract
The autophagosome-associated protein LC3-II is commonly used as a marker of autophagic activity within cells, but its levels are affected by both formation and degradation of autophagosomes. This can make the significance of altered LC3-II levels ambiguous. Here we describe the method of Bafilomycin A1 blotting, in which the degradation of autophagosomes is prevented in cultured cells, allowing the causes of altered LC3-II levels to be determined.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ravikumar B, Sarkar S, Davies JE et al (2010) Regulation of mammalian autophagy in physiology and pathophysiology. Physiol Rev 90:1383–1435
Ravikumar B, Duden R, Rubinsztein DC (2002) Aggregate-prone proteins with polyglutamine and polyalanine expansions are degraded by autophagy. Hum Mol Genet 11:1107–1117
Williams A, Sarkar S, Cuddon P et al (2008) Novel targets for Huntington’s disease in an mTOR-independent autophagy pathway. Nat Chem Biol 4:295–305
Webb JL, Ravikumar B, Atkins J et al (2003) Alpha-synuclein is degraded by both autophagy and the proteasome. J Biol Chem 278:25009–25013
Berger Z, Ravikumar B, Menzies FM et al (2006) Rapamycin alleviates toxicity of different aggregate-prone proteins. Hum Mol Genet 15:433–442
Kabeya Y, Mizushima N, Ueno T et al (2000) LC3, a mammalian homologue of yeast Apg8p, is localized in autophagosome membranes after processing. EMBO J 19:5720–5728
Kabeya Y, Mizushima N, Yamamoto A et al (2004) LC3, GABARAP and GATE16 localize to autophagosomal membrane depending on form-II formation. J Cell Sci 117:2805–2812
Yamamoto A, Tagawa Y, Yoshimori T et al (1998) Bafilomycin A1 prevents maturation of autophagic vacuoles by inhibiting fusion between autophagosomes and lysosomes in rat hepatoma cell line, H-4-II-E cells. Cell Struct Funct 23:33–42
Klionsky DJ, Elazar Z, Seglen PO, Rubinsztein DC (2008) Does bafilomycin A1 block the fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes? Autophagy 4:849–850
Mizushima N, Yoshimori T (2007) How to interpret LC3 immunoblotting. Autophagy 3:542–545
Rubinsztein DC, Cuervo AM, Ravikumar B et al (2009) In search of an “autophagomometer”. Autophagy 5:585–589
Korolchuk VI, Mansilla A, Menzies FM, Rubinsztein DC (2009) Autophagy inhibition compromises degradation of ubiquitin-proteasome pathway substrates. Mol Cell 33:517–527
Acknowledgements
We are grateful for funding from the Wellcome Trust to D.C.R. (Principal Research Fellowship) and A.S. (PhD Studentship).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Streeter, A., Menzies, F.M., Rubinsztein, D.C. (2016). LC3-II Tagging and Western Blotting for Monitoring Autophagic Activity in Mammalian Cells. In: Castrillo, J., Oliver, S. (eds) Systems Biology of Alzheimer's Disease. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1303. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2627-5_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2627-5_8
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2626-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2627-5
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols