Abstract
Context: An adequate supply of energy is essential for the proper functioning of all life activities in living organisms. As organelles that store neutral lipids, lipid droplets (LDs) are involved in the synthesis and metabolism of lipids in cells and are also an important source of energy supply.
Methods and mechanisms: A comprehensive summary of the literature was first carried out to screen for relevant proteins affecting the morphological size of LDs.The size of milk fat globules (MFGs) is directly influenced by the morphological size of LDs, which also controls the energy storage capacity of LDs. In this review, we detail the progress of research into the role of some protein in regulating the morphological size of LDs.
Conclusion: It has been discovered that the number of protein are involved in the control of LD growth and degradation, such as Rab18-mediated local synthesis of triacylglycerol (TAG), cell death-inducing DFF45-like effector family proteins (CIDEs)-mediated atypical fusion between LDs, Stomatin protein-mediated LD fusion and autophagy-related proteins (ATGs)-mediated autophagic degradation of LDs. However, more studies are needed in the future to enrich the network of mechanisms that regulate the morphological size of LDs.
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Author contributions
Yusong Ge, Yu Cao, Feng Li and Shoupeng Fu wrote the manuscript. Yusong Ge, Jiaxin Wang, Yuhao Liu, Wenjin Guo and Juxiong Liu designed the figure. All authors approved the submitted version.
Ethical approval and informed consent
Not Applicable.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Data availability statement
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.