Vacuole and mitochondria patches (vCLAMPs) are involved in the stress resistance of yeast, but their exact role in autophagy remains so far unclear. This study, for the first time, investigated the role of the vCLAMP core protein Vam6 in autophagy of Candida albicans. The experiments demonstrated that the deletion of VAM6 led to a growth defect under nitrogen starvation. Also, western blotting revealed that the vam6Δ/Δ mutant attenuated degradation of Atg8 (an autophagy indicator), Lap41 (an indicator of the cytoplasm to vacuole targeting pathway), and Csp37 (a mitophagy indicator). Moreover, the activity of carboxypeptidase Y and the levels of the vacuolar phospholipase Atg15 were significantly decreased in the mutant, which confirmed the defect of autophagy caused by deletion of VAM6. Overall, these results revealed that Vam6 is essential in maintaining the autophagic process under nitrogen starvation, and this provided new insights into the correlation between vCLAMPs and autophagy.

液泡和线粒体斑块 (vCLAMP) 与酵母的抗逆性有关，但它们在自噬中的确切作用迄今仍不清楚。本研究首次研究了 vCLAMP 核心蛋白 Vam6 在白色念珠菌自噬中的作用。实验表明，VAM6的缺失导致氮饥饿下的生长缺陷。此外，蛋白质印迹显示vam6Δ/Δ 突变体减弱了 Atg8（自噬指标）、Lap41（细胞质到液泡靶向途径的指标）和 Csp37（线粒体自噬指标）的降解。此外，突变体中羧肽酶Y的活性和液泡磷脂酶Atg15的水平显着降低，证实了VAM6缺失引起的自噬缺陷。总体而言，这些结果表明 Vam6 在氮饥饿下维持自噬过程至关重要，这为 vCLAMP 与自噬之间的相关性提供了新的见解。