Isolation and characterization of novel plekhm1 and def8 mutant alleles in Drosophila

Abstract

Lysosomal degradation of cytoplasmic components by autophagy ensures the continuous turnover of proteins and organelles and aids cellular survival during nutrient deprivation and other stress conditions. Lysosomal targeting of cytoplasmic proteins and organelles requires the concerted action of several proteins and multisubunit complexes. The core components of this machinery are conserved from yeast to humans and many of them are well-characterized; however, novel molecular players have been recently discovered and are waiting for detailed analysis. The osteopetrosis-linked PLEKHM1 protein is a lysosomal adaptor involved in autophagosome and endosome to lysosome fusion events and its role in lysosomal positioning in osteoclasts was reported together with its proposed binding partner, the relatively uncharacterized DEF8 protein. Here, we report the generation and subsequent analysis of novel mutant alleles of Drosophila plekhm1 and def8. Interestingly, the CRISPR-generated null mutations of these genes do not have any obvious effects on autophagy in Drosophila tissues, even though RNAi knockdown of these genes seems to perturb autophagy. Although these results are quite surprising and raise the possibility of compensatory changes in the case of null mutants, the new alleles will be valuable tools in future studies to understand the cellular functions of Drosophila Plekhm1 and Def8 proteins.