C. elegans ATG-5 mutants associated with ataxia.

Intercellular cleaning via autophagy is crucial for maintaining cellular homeostasis, and impaired autophagy has been associated with the accumulation of protein aggregates that can contribute to neurological diseases. Specifically, the loss-of-function mutation in the human autophagy-related gene 5 (ATG5) at E122D has been linked to the pathogenesis of spinocerebellar ataxia in humans. In this study, we generated two homozygous C. elegans strains with mutations (E121D and E121A) at positions corresponding to the human ATG5 ataxia mutation to investigate the effects of ATG5 mutations on autophagy and motility. Our results showed that both mutants exhibited a reduction in autophagy activity and impaired motility, suggesting that the conserved mechanism of autophagy-mediated regulation of motility extends from C. elegans to humans.