macroautophagy

Canonical and non-canonical autophagy

The autophagosome is the central organelle in macroautophagy, a vacuolar lysosomal catabolic pathway that degrades cytoplasmic material to fuel starving cells and eliminates intracellular pathogens.

Macroautophagy has important physiological roles during development, ageing and the immune response, and its cytoprotective function is compromised in various diseases.

A set of autophagy-related (ATG) proteins is hierarchically recruited to the phagophore, the initial membrane template in the construction of the autophagosome.

Macroautophagy can also occur in the absence of some of these key autophagy proteins, through the unconventional biogenesis of canonical autophagosomes.

See also

 autophagy in cancer
 degradative patways

References

 Canonical and non-canonical autophagy: variations on a common theme of self-eating? Codogno P, Mehrpour M, Proikas-Cezanne T. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2011 Dec 14;13(1):7-12. PMID: 22166994