RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 MR1 dependent MAIT cell activation is regulated by autophagy associated proteins JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2022.09.20.508788 DO 10.1101/2022.09.20.508788 A1 Phalora, Prabhjeet A1 Ussher, James A1 Hester, Svenja A1 Marchi, Emanuele A1 Mak, Jeffrey Y. W. A1 Fairlie, David P. A1 Klenerman, Paul YR 2022 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/09/30/2022.09.20.508788.abstract AB The antigen presenting molecule, MR1, presents microbial metabolites to MAIT cells, a population of innate-like, anti-microbial T cells. It also presents an unidentified ligand to MR-1 restricted T cells in the setting of cancer. The cellular co-factors that mediate MR1 antigen presentation have yet to be fully defined. We performed a mass spectrometry-based proteomics screen to identify MR1 interacting proteins and identified the selective autophagy receptor SQSTM1/p62. CRISPR-Cas9-mediated knock out of SQSTM1/p62 increased MAIT cell activation in the presence of E.coli but not the synthetic ligand 5-OP-RU whereas depletion of Atg5 and Atg7, key autophagy proteins, increased MAIT activation irrespective of the ligand used. This regulation appears to occur at an early step in the trafficking pathway. This data implicates distinct roles for autophagy associated proteins in the regulation of MR1 activity and highlights the autophagy pathway as a key regulator of cellular antigen presentation.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.