Tor-mediated induction of autophagy via an Apg1 protein kinase complex

Kamada Y, Funakoshi T, Shintani T, Nagano K, Ohsumi M, Ohsumi Y · 2000 · J Cell Biol · Atlas ID KAM2000

What this study shows

The founding experiment of the whole TOR-to-autophagy axis. Starvation or rapamycin raises the kinase activity of Apg1 (the yeast counterpart of ULK1), and TOR keeps autophagy off by holding Apg13 hyperphosphorylated so that it cannot bind and activate Apg1. Boundary: yeast only, and the mammalian version of the same step (ULK1-ATG13-FIP200) was shown separately nine years later.

Abstract

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Autophagy is a membrane trafficking to vacuole/lysosome induced by nutrient starvation. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Tor protein, a phosphatidylinositol kinase-related kinase, is involved in the repression of autophagy induction by a largely unknown mechanism. Here, we show that the protein kinase activity of Apg1 is enhanced by starvation or rapamycin treatment. In addition, we have also found that Apg13, which binds to and activates Apg1, is hyperphosphorylated in a Tor-dependent manner, reducing its affinity to Apg1.

Read the full abstract on PubMed →

At a glance

Evidence type	M Molecular — cells, biochemistry, structure Marked M because it is molecular or in-vitro work (model: Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast)) rather than a whole-organism health-outcome study. That is often exactly where causal biology gets established -- the code says which system the finding was shown in, and nothing about how good the work is.
Study type	5 - Mechanistic / In Vitro
Model system	Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast)
Journal	J Cell Biol
Year	2000
Peer reviewed	Yes
Record last updated	2026-09-23
Source	DOI 10.1083/jcb.150.6.1507 · PMID 10995454

Cite this paper

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Kamada, Y., Funakoshi, T., Shintani, T., Nagano, K., Ohsumi, M., & Ohsumi, Y. (2000). Tor-mediated induction of autophagy via an Apg1 protein kinase complex. J Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.150.6.1507

@article{KAM2000,
  author       = {Kamada, Y. and Funakoshi, T. and Shintani, T. and Nagano, K. and Ohsumi, M. and Ohsumi, Y.},
  title        = {{Tor-mediated induction of autophagy via an Apg1 protein kinase complex}},
  journal      = {J Cell Biol},
  year         = {2000},
  doi          = {10.1083/jcb.150.6.1507},
  note         = {PMID: 10995454},
}

Cite this Atlas record

The record is the Atlas's own work — the evidence label, the extracted findings and the links. It is cited as part of the dataset, not as the paper.

Barton, O. (2026). Oliver's mTOR Atlas (record KAM2000) [Data set]. https://mtor-atlas.org/study/KAM2000/ · Dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22059963

@misc{atlas_KAM2000,
  author       = {Barton, Oliver},
  title        = {{Oliver's mTOR Atlas}, record KAM2000},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://mtor-atlas.org/study/KAM2000/},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22059963}
}