Prof. Yasin Dagdas Evolutionary Cell Biology
Our long-term objective is to unravel the molecular mechanisms of cellular quality control that enable eukaryotic organisms to survive and thrive across diverse environments.
By unlocking these fundamental processes, we aspire to establish novel strategies to enhance stress tolerance in plant and human cells. To achieve our goal, we propose an integrative approach rooted in comparative cell biology. We aim to sample the extraordinary diversity embedded across the eukaryotic tree of life to discover new autophagy pathways. We then leverage a comprehensive suite of cutting-edge cell biological and biochemical tools to dissect these novel quality control pathways and their contribution to organismal homeostasis.
Historically, comparative methodologies have been the bedrock of transformative breakthroughs in molecular biology. Yet, recent trends have seen a narrowing focus on a handful of “model” organisms, leading to a decline in comparative studies within mechanistic research. Simultaneously, evolutionary biology has often concentrated on genes and proteins in isolation, overlooking the cell as the fundamental arena of evolutionary innovation. Our mission is to bridge this critical gap by establishing an evolutionary cell biology program dedicated to the molecular and functional evolution of the autophagy pathway.
Research Themes
1. Selective autophagy receptor discovery and characterization: We harness comparative cell biology to uncover novel selective autophagy receptors, and characterize them using cutting-edge mechanistic tools.
2. Endoplasmic reticulum homeostasis and UFMylation: Building on our discovery of the conserved autophagy receptor C53 and its regulation by the enigmatic UFMylation pathway, our research combines evolutionary cell biology, advanced RNA biochemistry, and omics to illuminate the hidden roles of UFMylation in maintaining cellular homeostasis.
3. ATG8ylation and Vacuolar Quality Control: Our recent discovery that cell wall damage induces ATG8ylation of the tonoplast—a process known as non-canonical autophagy—opens exciting questions about how this modification safeguards vacuolar health. We are now unraveling the intricate mechanisms and physiological significance of this pathway.
4. Cell-Type Specific Autophagy Mechanisms: Understanding how autophagy varies among distinct cell types is a major frontier in cellular quality control research. With innovative tools we've developed, we're investigating how specialized autophagy pathways coordinate to sustain overall organismal homeostasis in response to diverse stresses.
Join Us
We are currently recruiting at all levels! We are particularly interested in adding a structural biologist or biochemist to our team. If you are Interested, please reach out to
Selected Publications
1. UFMylation anchors splicing factors at the ER to reprogram nuclear splicing
Zhan N, Papareddy RK, Erte B, Anisimova AS, Perdigao C, Tirard-Thevenoud M, Mihailovic M, Akyol H, Karagöz GE, Brose N, Irwin NA, Dagdas Y
BioRxiv, 30 Mar 2026
2. Selective autophagy fine-tunes plant immunity to promote cell survival during viral infection.
Clavel M, Bianchi A, Kobylinska R, Groh R, Zhang X, Ma J, Papareddy RK, Grujic N, Picchianti L, Stewart E, Schutzbier M, Stejskal K, de la Concepcion JC, Sanchez de Medina Hernandez V, Voichek Y, Clauw P, Gunis J, Durnberger G, Muelders JC, Grimm A, Sedivy A, Erhardt M, Vyboishchikov V, Gao P, Lechner E, Vantard E, Potuschak T, Jez J, Roitinger E, Genschik P, Kang BH, Dagdas Y.
Science. 2026 May 28;392(6801):eadu9554. doi: 10.1126/science.adu9554. Epub 2026 May 28.
PMID: 42207886
3. Cell-type-specific autophagy in root-hair-forming cells is essential for salt stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Zhao J, Gao P, Xiang S, Löfke C, Yeung KC, Chen Y, Jiang L, Dagdas Y.
Nature Plants. 2026 May;12(5):1008-1021. doi: 10.1038/s41477-026-02285-w. Epub 2026 May 6.
PMID: 42092164
4. A lineage-specific selective autophagy receptor module mediates P-body turnover.
Abdrakhmanov A, Ethier E, Anisimova AS, Grujic N, Papareddy RK, Clavel M, Karagöz GE, Hallacli E, Dagdas Y.
Developmental Cell. 2026 Apr 8;61(4):744-759.e11. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2026.01.017. Epub 2026 Feb 23.
PMID: 41734762
5. Cross-species interactome analysis uncovers a conserved selective autophagy mechanism for protein quality control in plants.
Sánchez de Medina Hernández V, Nava-García MM, Bianchi A, Clavel M, Papareddy RK, Benchalel L, Andreev VI, Mathur V, Mohseni A, García-León M, Gao P, de la Concepción JC, Picchianti L, Grujic N, Kobylinska R, Abdrakhmanov A, Duvergé H, Anand G, Leibrock N, Ma J, Raffeiner M, Crawford TS, Argirò L, Matuszkiewicz M, Wun CL, Kanne JV, Meinhart A, Roitinger E, Bäurle I, Kang BH, Petersen M, Üstün S, Kulathu Y, Clausen T, Ramundo S, Dagdas Y.
Developmental Cell. 2026 Mar 11;61(3):655-675.e22. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2025.11.001. Epub 2025 Dec 1.
PMID: 41330383
6. Electrostatic changes enabled the diversification of an exocyst subunit via protein complex escape.
De la Concepcion JC, Duverge H, Kim Y, Julian J, Xu HD, Watt MN, Ikene SA, Bianchi A, Grujic N, Papareddy RK, Grishkovskaya I, Haselbach D, Murray DH, Clavel M, Irwin NAT, Dagdas Y.
Nature Plants. 2025 Nov;11(11):2350-2367. doi: 10.1038/s41477-025-02135-1. Epub 2025 Oct 31.
PMID: 41174228
7. ATG8ylation of vacuolar membrane protects plants against cell wall damage.
Julian J, Gao P, Del Chiaro A, Carlos De La Concepcion J, Armengot L, Somssich M, Duverge H, Clavel M, Grujic N, Kobylinska R, Polivka I, Besten M, Andersen TG, Dank C, Korbei B, Bachmair A, Coll NS, Minina EA, Sprakel J, Dagdas Y.
Nature Plants. 2025 Feb;11(2):321-339. doi: 10.1038/s41477-025-01907-z. Epub 2025 Feb 7.
PMID: 39920307
8. Shuffled ATG8 interacting motifs form an ancestral bridge between UFMylation and autophagy.
Picchianti L, Sánchez de Medina Hernández V, Zhan N, Irwin NA, Groh R, Stephani M, Hornegger H, Beveridge R, Sawa-Makarska J, Lendl T, Grujic N, Naumann C, Martens S, Richards TA, Clausen T, Ramundo S, Karagöz GE, Dagdas Y.
EMBO J. 2023 May 15;42(10):e112053. doi: 10.15252/embj.2022112053. Epub 2023 Feb 10.
PMID: 36762703
9. Plant autophagosomes mature into amphisomes prior to their delivery to the central vacuole.
Zhao J, Bui MT, Ma J, Künzl F, Picchianti L, De La Concepcion JC, Chen Y, Petsangouraki S, Mohseni A, García-Leon M, Gomez MS, Giannini C, Gwennogan D, Kobylinska R, Clavel M, Schellmann S, Jaillais Y, Friml J, Kang BH, Dagdas Y.
Journal of Cell Biology. 2022 Dec 5;221(12):e202203139. doi: 10.1083/jcb.202203139. Epub 2022 Oct 19.
PMID: 36260289
10. A cross-kingdom conserved ER-phagy receptor maintains endoplasmic reticulum homeostasis during stress.
Stephani M, Picchianti L, Gajic A, Beveridge R, Skarwan E, Sanchez de Medina Hernandez V, Mohseni A, Clavel M, Zeng Y, Naumann C, Matuszkiewicz M, Turco E, Loefke C, Li B, Dürnberger G, Schutzbier M, Chen HT, Abdrakhmanov A, Savova A, Chia KS, Djamei A, Schaffner I, Abel S, Jiang L, Mechtler K, Ikeda F, Martens S, Clausen T, Dagdas Y.
eLife. 2020 Aug 27;9:e58396. doi: 10.7554/eLife.58396.
PMID: 32851973
