A conserved ATG2-GABARAP interaction is critical for phagophore closure

The intracellular trafficking pathway, macroautophagy, acts as a recycling and disposal service that can be upregulated during periods of stress, to maintain cellular homeostasis. An essential transition point in the pathway is the sealing of the immature phagophore to form an autophagosome, isolating unwanted cargo prior to lysosomal degradation. However, little mechanistic detail is known about phagophore closure. Human ATG2A and ATG2B proteins, through their interaction with WIPI proteins, are thought to be key players during phagophore closure. We have identified a highly-conserved motif driving the interaction between human ATG2 and GABARAP proteins that is in close proximity to the ATG2-WIPI4 interaction site. We show that the ATG2-GABARAP interaction mutants are unable to close phagophores resulting in blocked autophagy, similar to ATG2A/ATG2B double knock-out cells. In contrast, the ATG2-WIPI4 interaction mutant fully restored phagophore closure and autophagy flux, similar to wild type ATG2. Taken together, we provide new mechanistic insights to the requirements for ATG2 function at the phagophore and suggest that an ATG2-GABARAP interaction is essential for phagophore closure, whereas ATG2-WIPI4 interaction is dispensable.