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HEREDITAS(Beijing) ›› 2014, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (5): 447-455.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1005.2014.0447

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Epigenetic control of autophagy

Yuanchao Sun1,2 , Xunsi Qin1, Hong Chen2, Wei Shen1   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Animal Reproduction and Germplasm Enhancement in Universities of Shandong, College of Animal Science and Technology, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China; 
    2. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Molecular Biology of Shanxi, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
  • Received:2013-10-22 Revised:2014-01-16 Online:2014-05-20 Published:2014-05-25

Abstract:

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved cellular process through cell degradation of own protein aggregates or organelles to survive. Autophagy is closely related to many life activities, and especially, its dysfunctions might cause many diseases and physiological problems, such as tumorigenesis, neurodegeneration and microbial infection. In recent years, many studies found that epigenetic modifications may regulate the occurrence of autophagy and also play an important role in the process of autophgy biological function.However the exact mechanism of epigenetic modifications remains largely unknown. Here,we review the epigenetic effects on regulation of autophagy process, including histone acetylation activation and negatively feedback controlling autophagy, DNA methylation regulating cell autophagy process by changing autophagy related genes, and miRNA regulating autophagy related gene expression by targeted degradation and histone modifications. This review will help understand the relationship between epigenetic effects and autophagy.

Key words: autophagy, epigenetic effects, DNA methylation, histone modification, miRNA