The intrinsically disordered regions of organellophagy receptors are interchangeable and control organelle fragmentation, ER-phagy and mitophagy flux

Abstract Organellophagy receptors control the generation and delivery of portions of their homing organelle to acidic degradative compartments to recycle nutrients, remove toxic or aged macromolecules and remodel the organelle upon physiologic or pathologic cues. How they operate is not understood. Here we show that organellophagy receptors are composed of a membrane-tethering module that controls organellar and suborganellar distribution and by a cytoplasmic intrinsically disordered region (IDR) with net cumulative negative charge that controls organelle fragmentation and displays an LC3-interacting region (LIR). The LIR is required for lysosomal delivery but is dispensable for organelle fragmentation. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-phagy receptors’ IDRs trigger DRP1-assisted mitochondrial fragmentation and mitophagy when transplanted at the outer mitochondrial membrane. Mitophagy receptors’ IDRs trigger ER fragmentation and ER-phagy when transplanted at the ER membrane. This offers an interesting example of function conservation on sequence divergency. Our results imply the possibility to control the integrity and activity of intracellular organelles by surface expression of organelle-targeted chimeras composed of an organelle-targeting module and an IDR module with net cumulative negative charge that, if it contains a LIR, eventually tags the organelle portions for lysosomal clearance.