Screening for residues in Atg11, a central organizer of selective autophagy in yeast, important for binding with Atg9

The yeast protein Atg11, whose structure is unknown, is a central organizer of autophagosome formation that recruits Atg9 during selective autophagy. Although the residues in Atg9 responsible for this interaction are known, those in Atg11 are not. In an attempt to discover the binding site of Atg9 on Atg11, we screened a number of mutants within amino acid residues 455-627 of Atg11, guided in part by an AlphaFold2-generated model of the Atg11 dimer. However, we were not able to identify specific residues essential for the interaction with Atg9, suggesting that the binding region may lie elsewhere on Atg11.