Italy

Grant category: Research Grants

Year: 2026

Geography: Italy

Crinophagy is a natural process occurring in secretory cells, where cellular “packages” called secretory granules are broken down by lysosomes, the cell’s recycling centers, without using the standard degradation pathway called autophagy. Crinophagy preserves cell homeostasis and is characterized by distinctive intracellular structures named crinosomes. These are cluster of secretory granules targeted for degradation. While studying mitochondria–melanosome interactions via Mitofusin2, we observed large melanosome clusters enclosed by a single membrane, resembling crinosomes. Combined with evidence that some crinophagy proteins influence pigmentation, this suggests crinophagy may occur in melanocytes. In this project we aim to verify if crinophagy contributes to melanosome turnover and skin pigmentation, and to enhance our understanding of the etiology of rare pigmentation disorders, like Chediak–Higashi and Hermansky–Pudlak syndromes, which feature abnormal, enlarged melanosomes.