UC San Diego

Beclin1 is a core component of the class III phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K-III) complex. It functions as an adaptor protein and is involved in recruiting autophagy proteins to initiate the nucleation of the autophagosome. Although Beclin1 is considered to be critical for autophagy, we observed that autophagy is still intact in cells lacking Beclin1. This suggests that autophagy can be initiated in a Beclin1-independent manner. Beclin2 is a homologue of Beclin1 and has been reported to regulate both autophagy and endosomal-mediated degradation of certain GPCRs. However, only two additional studies on Beclin2 have been published since its original discovery in 2013, and potential compensation mechanisms between Beclin1 and Beclin2 have not been explored