The anti-apoptosis ubiquitin E3 ligase XIAP promotes autophagosome-lysosome fusion during autophagy

Abstract

The Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein (IAP) family members are well-known endogenous regulators of apoptosis. Whether these proteins regulate other degradation pathways is unclear. Here, we discovered that the IAP member X-linked IAP (XIAP) is crucial for macroautophagy. Loss of XIAP in mouse and human cells inhibited starvation-induced degradation of LC3 proteins and an autophagy substrate p62. It also led to the accumulation of mature autophagosomes, suggesting that XIAP controls autophagic flux by mediating autolysosome formation. Xiap{triangleup}RING/{triangleup}RING cells phenocopy the autophagy defects of Xiap-/- cells, suggesting that the ubiquitinating activity mediated by the catalytic RING domain is critical for autophagic flux. We found that XIAP physically interacts with Syntaxin 17, a regulator of autophagosome-lysosome fusion. Syntaxin 17-positive mature autophagosomes positive accumulate in the cytoplasm of starved Xiap-/- cells, suggesting that XIAP might regulate its dissociation from autophagosomes after fusion. XIAP selectively interacts with GABARAP among LC3 family members via the LIR-Docking Site (LDS). Together, our data suggest that XIAP-mediated ubiquitination regulates key autophagy regulators to promote autophagosome-lysosome fusion.