Recent studies have suggested that autophagy is a key mechanism in maintaining the
integrity of podocytes. The mammalian homologue of yeast vacuolar protein sorting
defective 34 (mVps34) has been implicated in the regulation of autophagy, but its role in
podocytes is unknown. We generated a line of podocyte-specific mVps34-knockout
(mVps34 pdKO) mice, which were born at Mendelian ratios. These mice appeared grossly
normal at 2 weeks of age but exhibited growth retardation and were significantly smaller …