HCV-induced autophagosomes are generated via homotypic fusion of phagophores that mediate HCV RNA replication

Author summary Autophagy is a catabolic process that is important for maintaining cellular homeostasis. During autophagy, crescent membrane structures known as phagophores first appear in the cytoplasm, which then expand to form enclosed double-membrane vesicles known as autophagosomes. It has been shown that hepatitis C virus (HCV) induces autophagy and uses autophagosomal membranes for its RNA replication. In this report, we studied the biogenesis pathway of HCV-induced autophagosomes and demonstrated that phagophores induced by HCV originated from the endoplasmic reticulum and undergo homotypic fusion to generate autophagosomes, and that the HCV RNA replication complex is assembled on phagophores prior to the formation of autophagosomes. These findings provided important information for understanding how an RNA virus controls this important cellular pathway for its replication.See it on Scoop.it, via Viruses and Bioinformatics from Virology.uvic.ca
HCV-induced autophagosomes are generated via homotypic fusion of phagophores that mediate HCV RNA replication
Source: Viral Bioinformatics