Required for both basal and inducible autophagy. Determines the localization of the autophagy-specific PI3-kinase complex PI3KC3-C1 (, ). Plays a role in autophagosome formation and MAP1LC3/LC3 conjugation to phosphatidylethanolamine (, ). Promotes BECN1 translocation from the trans-Golgi network to autophagosomes . Enhances PIK3C3 activity in a BECN1-dependent manner. Essential for the autophagy-dependent phosphorylation of BECN1 . Stimulates the phosphorylation of BECN1, but suppresses the phosphorylation PIK3C3 by AMPK . Binds to STX17-SNAP29 binary t-SNARE complex on autophagosomes and primes it for VAMP8 interaction to promote autophagosome-endolysosome fusion (, ). Modulates the hepatic lipid metabolism (By similarity).
Subcellular locations: Cytoplasm, Endoplasmic reticulum membrane, Preautophagosomal structure membrane, Cytoplasmic vesicle, Autophagosome membrane
Cytosolic under nutrient-rich conditions . Following autophagy stimuli, such as starvation or rapamycin induction, predominantly detected in cytoplasmic foci, identified as isolation membranes and autophagosomes . Accumulates on highly curved PtdIns(3)P enriched autophagic membrane via its BATS domain to sense and maintain membrane curvature (By similarity). Localizes also to discrete punctae along the ciliary axoneme and to the base of the ciliary axoneme (By similarity).