ABSTRACT
First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Pierre Vigié is the first author on ‘The mitochondrial phosphatidylserine decarboxylase Psd1 is involved in nitrogen starvation-induced mitophagy in yeast’, published in Journal of Cell Science. Pierre conducted the work in this article as a PhD student in the lab of Nadine Camougrand at the Institut de Biochimie et Génétique Cellulaires, UMR 5095, in Bordeaux, France, where he is studying the mechanisms of mitophagy.
Pierre Vigié
How would you explain the main findings of your paper in lay terms?
Our team works on autophagy, an intracellular degradation mechanism. To explain this process, let's say a cell is a city. Autophagy can be compared to garbage or waste removal and recycling. The ‘garbage trucks’ in cells are called autophagosomes. They deliver cell constituents within degradation compartments that can be related to reprocessing plants. Autophagy can be non-selective, which means that random cell components are delivered to degradation compartments. In the case of a city, garbage collectors will recycle almost everything they find in the streets. However, selective autophagy processes have also been described. In this case, garbage men will only focus on a particular kind of waste or product to be recycled; in our study, this was the degradation of mitochondria by autophagy, called mitophagy. In a cell, autophagosomes or ‘garbage trucks’, are surrounded by various lipids. In our work, we focused on a particular type of lipid required for all autophagy processes – both selective and not selective – called phosphatidylethanolamine. In yeast, this lipid can be produced at different places by different cell constituents. To refer to the city analogy, different factories, located at different places, are able to produce one of the garbage truck body compounds but it was unclear which factory was involved in this process. We demonstrated that mitochondria are the major factories for mitophagy and may supply this lipid to autophagosomes.
Were there any specific challenges associated with this project? If so, how did you overcome them?
We are a small team with moderate means. Two of us were working on this project daily but it was not the only project we were working on. We were competing with big laboratories with very skilled scientists and we were afraid that they could publish similar data before us. Thanks to the work of our team and all our collaborators, we managed to publish our results and we are proud of it.
When doing the research, did you have a particular result or ‘eureka’ moment that has stuck with you?
We started the project by monitoring autophagy and mitophagy induction in yeast strains lacking one phosphatidylethanolamine synthesis pathway. Our ‘eureka’ moment was when we found that some of these strains were partially impaired in mitophagy induction depending on conditions. Then, we focused on one strain and we found other interesting results.
Why did you choose Journal of Cell Science for your paper?
Journal of Cell Science is an international journal which is very famous in biology. Editors and reviewers are all specialized in at least one area of cell biology, so we knew that we would have a very rigorous reviewing process with specialized and general questions, which is what we had. The editor and reviewers did an excellent job and the questions they asked helped us to improve our manuscript.
Have you had any significant mentors who have helped you beyond supervision in the lab?
Of course, I would like to thank my supervisor Nadine Camougrand for her trust concerning this project. She has always been there for me in good moments, but also in moments of doubt. She is an exceptional scientist with plenty of good ideas and she always gave advice to overcome any issues. I would like to thank all the members of my team ‘Mitochondria, stress and cell death’ at the IBGC. They gave me all the support and advice I needed to work in a laboratory.
What motivated you to pursue a career in science, and what have been the most interesting moments on the path that led you to where you are now?
My Bachelor's and Master's degrees gave me a taste of science. I had the chance to do research internships at the IBGC under the supervision of Nadine Camougrand on a great topic. To me, it was natural to continue in research and to do a PhD in the same research field.
3D view of yeast cells expressing GFP–Atg8 and Ilv3–RFP (marking mitochondria) during nitrogen starvation. White arrowheads represent colocalisation events.
Tell us something interesting about yourself that wouldn't be on your CV
Well, it does appear on my CV: I love to draw. Basically, I started during my internships, and created my own drawings. I like to ask myself how I can visualize an idea, a hypothesis or a fact by a drawing. I think it is easier for everyone to understand a good drawing rather than a thousand words, especially in science. What I love about it is the design and creation part and to imagine the simplest and the most accurate (and beautiful) way to express an idea.
Pierre Vigié’s contact details: Institut de Biochimie et Génétique Cellulaires UMR 5095 CNRS, 1 rue Camille Saint Saëns, CS61390, 33077 Bordeaux Cedex, France.
E-mail: [email protected]
