FIGURE 2.

Hypothetical regulation of autophagy by IRGM upon viral infections. IRGM is associated to mitochondria via cardiolipin (CL). Upon viral infection, IRGM could interact with four different autophagy-associated proteins which could support autophagosome biogenesis from mitochondria membrane, by regulating nucleation and/or elongation steps of autophagy. IRGM-mediated autophagy might correlate to a decrease of IFN-I synthesis similarly to what was described for TUFM and MFN2. Both processes could benefit to viruses to improve their replication. Note that MFN2-mediated autophagy has not yet been reported in the context of viral infection (see text for details). As represented, viral double-stranded (ds)RNA can be recognized by RIG-I. IFN-I inhibition via IRGM is not yet demonstrated (dashed line) and putative not mitochondrial IRGM isoforms are not represented (see text for details).