ArticleScientific reports2021
ULK1 promotes mitophagy via phosphorylation and stabilization of BNIP3.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers.
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Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 110 citations in OpenAlex.
- Decidual protein induced by progesterone enhances HIF-1α stability to promote mitophagy and glycolysis.The FEBS journal · 2026Article
- Mitophagy in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Fatty Liver Disease: Mechanisms, Regulatory Networks, and Therapeutic Perspectives.Inflammation · 2026Review
- Mechanotransduction Failure and Molecular Rescue in Gastric Cancer: Kinetotherapy Across the IL-6/STAT3-Myostatin/ACVR2B-Akt/mTOR Axis.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Mitophagy in Hepatic Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury: From Mitochondrial Dysfunction to Therapeutic Targeting.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- Aromatic amino acid metabolism shapes autophagy-mediated adaptation to iron deprivation in glioblastoma cells.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2026Article
- The multifaceted functions of selective autophagy in cancer: molecular basis, consequences, and clinical prospects.Molecular cancer · 2026Review
- Role of mitochondrial dysfunction in muscle wasting in cancer cachexia: a narrative review.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Mitophagy in pancreatic cancer: mechanistic insights and implications for novel therapeutic strategies.Cell death discovery · 2026Review
- Dietary Protein Restriction Ameliorates Cardiac Inflammaging via AMPK-ULK1-Mediated Mitochondrial Quality Control.Aging cell · 2026Article
- Ferroptosis-dependent small extracellular vesicles ULK1 enhances mitophagy and suppresses breast cancer migration.Hereditas · 2026Article
- C9orf72-ALS mutation drives basal mitophagy impairments in iNeurons.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Article
- Sarcopenia and sepsis fuel a self-perpetuating cycle of immunometabolism decline.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Mitophagy in the pathogenesis and management of disease.Cell research · 2026Review
- Deciphering the Neuroautophagic Interactome: Molecular Circuits Linking Selective Autophagy to Neuropathological Cascades in Neurological Disorders.International journal of biological sciences · 2026Review
- mTOR signaling networks: mechanistic insights and translational frontiers in disease therapeutics.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2025Review
- Modified mRNA-Based Therapeutic Strategies for Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- PPA1 promotes oxidative phosphorylation and malignant progression of colorectal cancer under glucose restriction via AMPK/ULK1/FUNDC1-mediated mitophagy.Cell death discovery · 2025Article
- Mitochondrial Quality Control and Cell Death.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- The mitophagy receptors BNIP3 and NIX mediate tight attachment and expansion of the isolation membrane to mitochondria.The Journal of cell biology · 2025Article
- The mitophagy receptor BNIP3L/Nix coordinates nuclear calcium signaling to modulate the muscle phenotype.Autophagy · 2025Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
UNC51-like kinase-1 (ULK1) is the catalytic component of the autophagy pre-initiation complex that stimulates autophagy via phosphorylation of ATG14, BECLN1 and other autophagy proteins. ULK1 has also been shown to specifically promote mitophagy but the mechanistic basis of how has remained unclear. Here we show that ULK1 phosphorylates the BNIP3 mitochondrial cargo receptor on a critical serine residue (S17) adjacent to its amino terminal LIR motif. ULK1 similarly phosphorylates BNIP3L on S35. Phosphorylation of BNIP3 on S17 by ULK1 promotes interaction with LC3 and mitophagy. ULK1 interaction also promotes BNIP3 protein stability by limiting its turnover at the proteasome. The ability of ULK1 to regulate BNIP3 protein stability depends on an intact "BH3" domain and deletion of its "BH3" domain reduces BNIP3 turnover and increases BNIP3 protein levels independent of ULK1. In summary ULK1 promotes mitophagy by both stabilization of BNIP3 protein and via phosphorylation of S17 to stimulate interaction with LC3.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.