WIPI1 (human), recombinant protein

Protein function: Component of the autophagy machinery that controls the major intracellular degradation process by which cytoplasmic materials are packaged into autophagosomes and delivered to lysosomes for degradation (PubMed:28561066). Plays an important role in starvation- and calcium- mediated autophagy, as well as in mitophagy (PubMed:28561066). Functions downstream of the ULK1 and PI3-kinases that produce phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns3P) on membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum once activated (PubMed:28561066). Binds phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns3P), and maybe other phosphoinositides including PtdIns3,5P2 and PtdIns5P, and is recruited to phagophore assembly sites at the endoplasmic reticulum membranes (PubMed:28561066). There, it assists WIPI2 in the recruitment of ATG12- ATG5-ATG16L1, a complex that directly controls the elongation of the nascent autophagosomal membrane (PubMed:28561066). Involved in xenophagy of Staphylococcus aureus. Invading S.aureus cells become entrapped in autophagosome-like WIPI1 positive vesicles targeted for lysosomal degradation. Plays also a distinct role in controlling the transcription of melanogenic enzymes and melanosome maturation, a process that is distinct from starvation-induced autophagy. May also regulate the trafficking of proteins involved in the mannose-6- phosphate receptor (MPR) recycling pathway. [The UniProt Consortium]