Date: Nov. 1, 2023

Source: Institute of Photonics Technology, Institute of Nanophotonics

Translator: Liu Na

Prof. Zhou Qinghua and Wang Wenjun’s team from JNU has published an article in Nature Communications revealing the mechanism of action of Endonuclease G (ENDOG) in promoting non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by regulating the mTORC2-AKT-ACLY signaling axis and endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated lipid synthesis in hepatocytes. After the article was published online, the internationally renowned journal Autophagy invited the team to write a short review systematically summarizing its previous discoveries that ENDOG promotes sperm mitochondrial clearance (Science, 2016), promotes cellular autophagy (Nature Communications, 2021) and promotes NAFLD (Nature Communications, 2023).

(Screenshot of the paper in Nature Communications)

The team also published the review paper, titled The biological function of cytoplasm-translocated ENDOG (endonuclease G), in Autophagy on Oct. 27. It describes how, upon stimulation, ENDOG is released from the mitochondrial membrane gap and enters the mitochondrial matrix and cytoplasm to perform biological functions including mediating paternally derived mitochondrial clearance, cellular autophagy and lipid metabolism.

(Screenshot of the paper in Autophagy)

The first authors of the paper published in Autophagy are Wang and Li Jianshuang of the College of Life Science and Technology, with Zhou and Wang as corresponding authors. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Special Support Program of the Ministry of Organization.