Activation of autophagy by starvation and mTOR inhibition in three human cell lines

The aim of the project was to characterize changes in gene expression that are associated with induced autophagic flux. We engineered HeLa, HEK 293 and SH-SY5Y cell lines to express tandem-fluorecent LC3 (tf-LC3). The ratio of the red and green fluorophores indicated how much of the LC3 is in the acidic interior of lysosomes, which was a proxy measure for autophagic flux. RNA sequencing was performed for the cell lines at baseline and 1h, 15h and 30h after treatments. Additional untreated samples were also sequenced at some but not all time points. Autophagy was induced by amino acid starvation or mTOR inhibition (AZD8055).