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Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) factors have long been known in some wild plants, and also in some domesticated species, where they are used to produce plants to be used as maternal parents, for example to breed hybrids that display hybrid vigor. Their origins have been mystifying, and now a study recently published in Cell Research helps understand how one widely-used rice CMS factor evolved.
A recent study makes the surprising observation that autophagosomes can still form in the absence of the core conjugation machinery. Furthermore, while such autophagosomes can fuse with lysosomes, their degradation is delayed, and this is associated with delayed destruction of the inner autophagosomal double membrane, highlighting a new role for proteins thought to act exclusively in the formation of autophagosomes in late stages of the autophagic itinerary within autolysosomes.